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RAFALE DEAL

Rafale: French publication

Mediapart alleges new
evidence of kickbacks in jet
deal
It claimed that the CBI and ED have been
aware since October 2018 that fake invoices
had been used but failed to act.

Scroll Staff
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Yesterday · 02:59 pm

A Rafale fighter jets touches down at Ambala air base in

Haryana. | PTI

“Offshore companies, dubious contracts

and ‘false’ invoices” were allegedly used to
make payments of nearly 7.5 million euros
(approximately Rs 64 crore) in secret
commissions to a middleman, French
publication Mediapart reported on Sunday.
This eventually helped French aircraft
manufacturer Dassault Aviation clinch a
deal to sell 36 Rafale fighter jets to India,
the report claimed.

The publication claimed that even though

India’s Central Bureau of Investigation and
the Enforcement Directorate had been
aware about this in October 2018, they had
not started any investigation into the deal.

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In 2016, India agreed to pay Rs 58,000

crore for the jets when it signed an inter-
governmental agreement with France.

But the Congress accused the Narendra

Modi-led government of paying too much
for the planes. The party also alleged that
the Bharatiya Janata Party government
had helped a defence firm owned by
industrialist Anil Ambani land a major
contract under the deal even though it had
no experience in the sector.

Documents related to the offshore

companies and invoices were discovered
during an investigation into the Rs 3,600-
crore AgustaWestland VVIP helicopter
deal, in which Sushen Gupta, the alleged
middleman, has been named as an
accused, Mediapart reported.

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This relates to a Rs 3,565-crore helicopter

deal that the Congress-led United
Progressive Alliance government had
signed in 2010 with British-Italian firm
AgustaWestland. The deal was put on hold
after Italy arrested the head of
Finmeccanica, AgustaWestland’s parent
company, on charges of paying bribes to
win the contract.

“In the helicopter deal, middleman Sushen

Gupta received secret commissions from
AgustaWestland via a ‘letterbox’, or shell
company registered in Mauritius,
Interstellar Technologies Ltd,” the
MediaPart report said.

Mediapart reported that Mauritian

authorities had agreed to send a number
of documents to India’s Central Bureau of
Investigation and Enforcement
Directorate. The documents included
contracts, invoices and bank statements,
the French news website said.

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“This was how Indian detectives

discovered that Sushen Gupta had also
acted as an intermediary for Dassault
Aviation over the Rafale deal,” the
Mediapart report claimed. “His Mauritian
company Interstellar Technologies
received at least 7.5 million euros from the
French aviation firm
between 2007 and 2012, thanks to IT
contracts that were clearly overbilled, and
from which most of the money was
discreetly sent to Mauritius using a system
of alleged false invoices.”

In a three-part report in April, Mediapart

had alleged that Gupta was secretly paid
millions of euros by Dassault Aviation and
French defence electronics firm Thales to
influence the Rafale deal.

Despite being aware of the allegations,

France’s financial prosecutor Parquet
National Financier and India’s
Enforcement Directorate did not initiate
investigations into the matter, Mediapart
had reported in April.

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On June 14, France opened an

investigation into the Rafale deal with
India, Mediapart reported.

The French publication said that neither

the Central Bureau of Investigation nor the
Enforcement Directorate offered
clarifications after comment was sought
from them on this matter.

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Rafale Deal Dassault Aviation Corruption

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