New Delhi: French portal ‘Mediaport’ which has been investigation allegations of corruption in the Rs 59,000 crore Rafale fighter jets deal has said in its latest report that plane-maker ‘Dassault’ paid at least 7.5 million euros (nearly Rs 650 million) in bribes to a middleman to help secure the sale of 36 aircraft to India. It also said that Indian probe agencies have failed to investigate the corruption associated with the deal despite having documents in hand.
‘Mediapart’ in the report has published alleged false invoices. In the report, the portal said that through this invoices ‘Dassault’ secretly paid commissions to alleged middleman Sushen Gupta. “Despite the existence of these documents, the Indian federal police has decided not to pursue the affair and has not begun an investigation,” the portal has said.
According to the report, the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have had proof since October 2018 that Dassault paid kickbacks to Gupta to secure the sale of Rafale jets.
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The report says that the evidence would have remained hidden forever had not the scandal involving the sale of VVIP helicopters by Agusta-Westland come to light. ‘Mediapart’ said that evidence of kickback for the Rafale deal was presented in documents marked ‘confidential’ and the CBI and ED found it, but chose to remain mum.
According to the ‘MediaPart’ report, the bulk of the alleged kickback payments were made before 2013. CBI is yet to come out with a reaction to the allegations.
Mediapart’s investigation on ‘Rafale papers’ triggered a judicial investigation in France in July into allegations of corruption, influence peddling and favouritism.
Gupta is accused of receiving bribes from ‘AgustaWestland’ through a shell company registered in Mauritius. It is called ‘Intersteller Technologies’. The Mauritian authorities agreed to send documents related to the company to the CBI and ED, to facilitate investigations.
The report further states that documents were sent to the CBI October 11, 2018. It was just a week after the agency received an official complaint alleging corruption in the Rafale deal. “However, the CBI decided not to open an investigation, even though just seven days after that corruption complaint was filed it received information proving that secret commissions had indeed been paid,” ‘Mediapart’ said.
Mediapart says the ‘Mauritian documents cover the period of the bid process that was eventually won by Dassault (2007 – 2012)’, when the Congress was in power. ‘Whereas the complaint filed October 4, 2018, targets suspicious activity that took place from 2015, when the deal was being finalised on the authority of the current BJP Prime Minister Narendra Modi’, the site said.