In the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France, once again the genie of corruption has come out. A French publication has claimed that Dassault, the French company that made Rafale, had to pay one million euros ‘as a gift’ to a middleman in India. After this disclosure by the French media, questions are again being raised about the deal of Rafael in both the countries.
France’s publication ‘MediaPart‘ has claimed in a report that Dassault gave this amount to a middleman in India after the Indo-French agreement on Rafale fighter aircraft in 2016. In 2017, 508925 euros were transferred from Dassault Group’s account as ‘Gift to Clients’. This was revealed when AFA, the French anti-corruption agency, audited Dassault’s accounts.
According to the report of MediaPart, on disclosure, Dassault had said that these funds were used to make 50 big ‘models’ of Rafale fighter aircraft, but no such models were made. The French report claims that the agency did not take any action even after this was revealed in the audit, which also shows the collusion of French politicians and the justice system.
Rafale Scam
In fact, in France in 2018, an agency Parquet National Financier (PNF) had said that there was a mess in this deal, only then the audit was conducted and these things were revealed. There was no answer to the agency’s questions. The agency claimed in its report that the ‘gifted amount’ was defended by the Dassault Group.
It was said in the report that it was shown from the invoice of the Indian company Defsys Solutions that they had given half the amount of 50 models prepared. The price of each model was more than 20 thousand Euros. However, the Dassault Group had no response to all the allegations and did not respond to the audit agency. Also, Dassault could not tell to whom and why they had given this gift amount.
The Indian company, whose name has been taken in this report, has had a prior relationship with controversies. According to the report, the owner of the company has previously gone to jail in the AgustaWestland scam case. Reporter Yan Philippon of the media publication MediaPart, which has revealed this in France, told an Indian news channel that the Rafale deal between India and France is being investigated in three parts, in which it is only the first part. The biggest disclosure will be done in the third part.
Let us tell you that in the year 2016, the Government of India made a deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from France. Out of these, a dozen aircraft have also been got to India and by 2022 all the aircraft will be found. When this deal was done, there was still a lot of controversy in India. Before the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress targeted the Modi government on the issue of corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal.