Tuesday, 09 November 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
Indian agencies didn’t act despite being informed in 2018: Mediapart
The French journal Mediapart, which in the past few months has frequently reported alleged wrongdoings in the Rafale fighter jet deal, has claimed in the fresh expose that more than 7.5 million Euros were paid as kickbacks to secure the contract with India.
The web portal also alleged that the Indian investigative agencies did not take any action even though they were apprised of the issue in 2018. The agencies included the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate(ED), according to the portal.
In the latest revelations, the journal alleged bogus invoices were used to enable French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation to pay at least 7.5 million Euros in secret commissions to a middleman to help it secure the Rafale deal with India.
India and France inked the Government-to-Government deal for procuring 36 Rafale jets off the shelf from the manufacturer at a total cost of seven billion Euros(Rs 59,000 crore). At least 25 jets have already been inducted into the IAF and the remaining planes will come by the end of the next year.
Mediapart reported in July that a French judge has been appointed to lead a “highly sensitive” judicial investigation into suspected corruption” and favouritism in the Rafale deal.
“Mediapart is today publishing the alleged false invoices that enabled French aircraft manufacturer Dassault Aviation to pay at least 7.5 million euros in secret commissions to a middleman to help secure the sale of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft to India,” the journal said in its new report on Sunday.
It alleged that despite the existence of “these documents”, the Indian probe agencies decided not to pursue the matter. It involves offshore companies, dubious contracts and “false” invoices.
“Mediapart can reveal that detectives from India’s federal police force, the Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), and colleagues from the Enforcement Directorate (ED), which fights money laundering, have had proof since October 2018 that French aviation firm Dassault paid at least 7.5 million euros (equivalent to just under Rs 650 million) in secret commissions to middleman Sushen Gupta,” Mediapart claimed in the report.
“This was in the context of the French firm’s long and ultimately successful attempt to secure a 7.8 billion-euro-deal in 2016 to sell 36 of its Rafale fighters to India,” it said.
In a report in April 2021, the online journal claimed that it was in possession of documents that showed Dassault and its industrial partner Thales, a defence electronics firm, paid “middleman” Gupta several million euros in “secret commissions” in connection with the deal.
According to the April report, the bulk of the payments were made before 2013. “According to an accounts spreadsheet belonging to Sushen Gupta, an entity called simply ‘D’, which is a code he regularly used to designate Dassault, paid €14.6 million to Interdev in Singapore over the period 2004-2013,” the report said.
It said Interdev was a shell company with no real activity and administered by a straw man for the Gupta family.
The report said according to another accounts spreadsheet belonging to Gupta, which only covers the years 2004 to 2008, Thales paid €2.4 million to another shell company.
In another report in April, Mediapart claimed that Dassault paid €1 million to Gupta for manufacturing 50 large replica models of Rafale jets, even though the plane maker provided inspectors of French anti-corruption agency Agence Française Anticorruption no proof that these models were made. The deal became controversial.
Rafale manufacturer Dassault Aviation and India’s defence Ministry have previously trashed allegations of any corruption in the contract.
India’s Supreme Court too in 2019 dismissed petitions seeking a probe into the deal saying there was no ground for it.
In a statement published in April, reacting to Mediapart’s report on the investigation, Dassault Aviation stated that the group, “acts in strict compliance with the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention and national laws”.
The Congress accused the Government of massive irregularities in the deal, alleging that it was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA Government during the negotiations for the Medium multi-role combat aircraft(MMRCA).
Prior to the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, Congress raised several questions about the deal and alleged corruption, but the Government rejected all the charges.
The Government has maintained it cannot disclose the details of the price because of a confidentiality agreement with France, and the strategic reason of not showing its hand to India’s enemies. It said that the current deal also includes customised weaponry.
The Supreme Court heard a public interest case on the deal and in November 2019 said it saw nothing wrong in it.
