NGO files complaint in France, wants answers on Rafale fighter deal

NEW DELHI: Even as the Supreme Court earlier this month reserved its order on petitions seeking a probe into the Rs 59,000 crore deal for 36 Rafale fighters, an NGO has filed a “complaint” with France’s national fraud investigation agency for clarifications on the alleged corruption charges swirling around the mega contract in India.

French media reports on Friday said the Sherpa Association, a French NGO that fights “economic crimes”, had lodged the complaint to seek answers about allegations of money laundering, influence peddling, corruption and the like in the deal inked between India and France in September 2016.



The Congress and petitioners in the Supreme Court have alleged that the “non-transparent” Rafale deal was vastly overpriced, violated defence procurement procedures, included no transfer of technology (ToT), and was intended to benefit the Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Defence as the “offsets partner” of the French fighter manufacturer Dassault Aviation at the cost of defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

Strongly rejecting these allegations, the NDA government has said it secured a “better deal” in terms of price, capability, equipment, delivery and maintenance than the one “notionally being negotiated” by the previous UPA regime for 126 Rafale jets under the now-scrapped MMRCA (medium multi-role combat aircraft) project.