New Delhi: French news portal Mediapart, in a recent report, claimed the documents published on Monday were “fake invoices” and alleged payments received by middleman Sushen Gupta from Dassault Aviation to influence the sale of Rafale fighter jets to India. Gupta against the producer of Rafale and received 7.5 million euros as kickbacks between 2007 and 2012.
While the report mentions the sale of 36 jets, as done by the NDA government, the period under review coincides with the tenure of the UPA.
The alleged payment received by Gupta to ‘facilitate’ the Rafale deal during the UPA regime has been corroborated by sources in the investigating agencies, who have claimed that an investigation is pending as the ongoing probe against the middleman extends to the Agusta-Westland bribery. is limited. matter. A separate FIR needs to be filed in the Rafale pay-off and will involve Gupta and his well-wishers, a source said.
According to the French website, the bribes were paid to Gupta through his Mauritius arm Interstellar under the guise of “suspicious IT contracts”. Gupta is one of the main accused in the alleged bribe of Rs 423 crore received in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal. Interestingly, he reportedly received most of the payment for the VVIP chopper deal through his Mauritius-based Interstellar Technologies Ltd. Gupta was arrested by the ED in this case in 2019.
Later, in the chargesheet filed against Gupta, the ED had claimed that AgustaWestland bribes were transferred from one company to another in the form of consultancy fees. From Tunisian entities, the bribe proceeds were transferred to Interstellar Technologies in Mauritius.
Dassault Aviation had in April denied all allegations of payment in the supply of 36 Rafale jets to India.
It may be recalled that the UPA regime had shortlisted Dassault Aviation for the supply of 126 fighter jets, but could not conclude the deal due to differences over maintenance cost and other issues, with negotiations going on for several years. The deal was renegotiated by the NDA as a government-to-government contract and was renegotiated in 2016 with 36 fighters. Following allegations of overpriced and satisfaction, the deal was struck down by the Supreme Court and the CAG later concluded that it was slightly less than 3% cheaper than the terms discussed by the UPA.
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