INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
New Delhi: In a fresh controversy over the Rs 59,000-crore Rafale fighter jet deal, French investigative news website Mediapart has actually
claimed that its maker Dassault Aviation agreed to pay one million euros to an intermediary who is now under examination in India in
connection with another defence deal.In 2016, India had actually consented to purchase 36 Rafales for the Indian Air Force in a deal worth
Mediapart said the French anti-corruption firm Agence Française Anticorruption (AFA) found this different plan during a routine audit of
The AFA nevertheless chose not to alert the prosecution authorities over the payment.The report stated as AFA inspectors combed through
Dassault accounts in 2017, they raised an eyebrow when they discovered an item expenditure costing 508,925 euros gone into under the heading
It stated this amount of cash appeared disproportionate in relation to all other entries under the very same heading
The sum is undoubtedly substantial for a present
French law does not set out precise limitations, legal precedents recommend that offering a watch or an expensive meal costing a number of
hundred euros can be enough to constitute corruption, the Mediapart report stated
It stated Dassault supplied AFA with proforma invoice, which was supplied by an Indian business called Defsys Solutions
This invoice, that related to 50 percent of the total order (1,017,850 euros), was for the manufacture of 50 replicas of the Rafale with the
rate of each model 20,000 euros
AFA asked Dassault why it purchased an Indian company to make a reproduction of its aircraft at 20,000 euros per piece
AFA asked whether these replicas, expected to be the size of a cars and truck, were truly ever made? Dassault was unable to offer single
file or photograph showing that these models existed and were delivered, said the report
The news report said inspectors believed this was a fake purchase designed to conceal a hidden financial transaction.On reports that some of
these designs have been put out in India including at the Indian Flying force Chief's house, Yann Philippin, the reporter who wrote the
story, stated that besides the huge rate of these models, what was weird was that Dassault refused to validate if they were the very same
Dassault refused to verify to me that these are the exact same models
Are they the exact same model that were bought to this Indian business? We don't know
What is unusual is that if there was no problem which was simply an Indian business producing designs, Dassault must have spoken with us and
told us everything was clear
We ordered these models they are to be given to institutions in India to commemorate the Rafale deal
They could have described to us
There seems to be some kind of shame relating to these aircraft designs at Dassault head office, he informed a news channel
The CBI and Enforcement Directorate is investigating Defsys Solutions run by Sushen Gupta in the AgustaWestland case including kickbacks
paid in India in an offer for VVIP helicopters
Defsys is one of the Dassault sub-contractors in India.The BJP, on the other hand, on Monday dismissed as totally unwarranted the fresh
accusations of corruption in the Rafale offer, worrying that the Supreme Court had declined the demand for a probe into the purchase of the
fighter aircraft and the CAG also discovered absolutely nothing wrong.Responding to a concern about the Congress' attack on the Narendra
Modi federal government over the kickback claims, senior BJP leader and Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a press conference that
the Opposition celebration had actually made it a huge concern in the 2019 Lok Sabha surveys however had lost severely
He stated the claims of corruption were totally baseless and stated that a report in the French media about the supposed financial
irregularity in the deal might be because of business rivalry in that country.Noting that the Congress had actually raised the concern
earlier too, he said the Supreme Court had actually rejected the need for a probe and the Comptroller and Auditor General likewise
discovered absolutely nothing wrong in the fighter jet deal.The Congress on Monday sought a thorough probe in the Rafale defence deal and
demanded responses from Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the French media report claimed that 1.1 million euros were paid to a middleman
by the airplane manufacturer
