In the unfolding Rafale saga, Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Friday claimed that the first evidence of a kickback being paid in the purchase of fighter jets from France has emerged, alleging that Dassault's investment of Rs 284 crore in Anil Ambani's company was the first tranche of the bribe money.
Gandhi, referring to Dassault CEO Eric Trappier's reported statement that the jet manufacturer had chosen Reliance over Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for offset contract because the former had land, claimed that it has been revealed that the French firm paid Rs 284 crore to Anil Ambani's company for the purpose of buying land.
“So the Dassault CEO has clearly lied. The big question is why did Dassault put Rs 284 crore into a company whose losses run into Rs 8 lakh crore? This is called kickback,” the Congress President said at a press conference at the AICC headquarters in New Delhi.
He alleged this was the first instalment of the kickback given to Reliance Defence by Dassault.
Gandhi claimed that HAL had more land to offer than Reliance, and said that the question now was 'why was the Dassault CEO 'lying' and who was he protecting. “He is lying to protect Mr Narendra Modi. Rs 284 crore has gone into his account for absolutely no logical reason but as kickback,” he said.
He said that when one looked at the documents available in public domain, it was obvious that Rafale deal was an open-and-shut case of corruption, and that there was material enough to haul up Modi. “If an inquiry is held, Mr Modi is not going to survive it. One, because of corruption. And secondly, because it is very clear who took the decision...it was Mr Modi,” he said.
Linking the government's decision to divest CBI chief Alok Verma of his powers, he said it was done because Verma was privy to this information and was about to start an inquiry into the Rafale deal. “The prime minister is terrified of an inquiry because then the truth will come out. His corruption will come out,” Gandhi said.
