Rafale Deal: The primary batch of Rafale jets arrived in India final yr.
New Delhi:
The 2016 deal for the sale of 36 Rafale jets to India concerned a 1.1 million Euro cost made by aviation main Dassault to a intermediary in India, French publication “Mediapart” has alleged in a report primarily based on an investigation by the nation’s anti-corruption company. Dassault has claimed the cash was used to pay for 50 replicas of Rafale jets however has been unable to supply any doc or {photograph} as proof that these had been delivered.
The intermediary is accused of money-laundering in India in one other defence deal, the portal says in the report.
“The corporate (Dassault) stated the cash was used to pay for the manufacture of fifty massive reproduction fashions of Rafale jets, regardless that the inspectors got no proof that these fashions had been made,” Mediapart reported.
The allegations had been first uncovered by the French anti-corruption company Agence Francaise Anticorruption (AFA) throughout their audit of Dassault, in line with the report.
However the AFA “in opposition to all obvious logic” determined to not refer the case to prosecutors, it stated.
“As they combed via the 2017 accounts, the AFA inspectors raised an eyebrow once they got here throughout an merchandise of expenditure costing 508,925 euros and entered below the heading ‘items to shoppers’,” the AFA report stated.
“The sum was certainly large for a present. Although French regulation doesn’t set out exact limits, authorized precedents recommend that giving a watch or an costly meal costing a number of hundred Euros might be sufficient to represent corruption.”
The report stated to justify this “bigger than typical present” Dassault provided the AFA with a proforma bill dated March 30, 2017, which was provided by an Indian firm known as Defsys Options. “This bill, which associated to 50 per cent of the overall order, was for the manufacture of fifty fashions of the Rafale C, with a value per unit of €20,357,” the AFA report stated.”
Defsys Options is run by Sushen Gupta, who’s being investigated by the CBI and Enforcement Directorate within the AgustaWestland case involving kickbacks paid in India in a deal for VVIP choppers. Defsys is likely one of the subcontractors of Dassault in India.
Sushen Gupta was earlier arrested and granted bail within the chopper deal case.
The AFA inspectors requested Dassault for an evidence. “Why had Dassault ordered an Indian firm to make fashions of its personal plane at 20,000 Euros a aircraft? Why was this expenditure entered within the accounts as ‘a present to shopper’? And had been these fashions, every one among which was purported to be the dimensions of a small automobile, actually ever made?”
In accordance with Mediapart, “Dassault was unable to supply the AFA with a single doc displaying that these fashions existed and had been delivered, and never even {a photograph}. The inspectors this suspected that this was a bogus buy designed to cover hidden monetary transactions”.
The Congress demanded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assertion on the reveal.
“An investigation performed by French Anti-Corruption Company – AFA has now revealed that after signing of the deal in 2016, Dassault paid 1.1 Million Euro to a intermediary i.e. Defsys Options. This quantity was proven as ‘Expenditure by Dassault’ as ‘Presents to Shoppers’,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala stated.
“Does it not require a full and impartial investigation into India’s largest defence deal to search out out as to how a lot bribery and fee in actuality, if any, was paid and to whom within the Indian authorities?”
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