HAL CMD, R Madhavan met defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman and three service chiefs met in Parliament on Wednesday against the backdrop of the Rafale controversy.

Army chief General Bipin Rawat, Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal BS Dhanoa and Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba were seen arriving at the Parliament complex shortly after noon.

The meeting was to discuss the finances of the distressed state-run aircraft manufacturer. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has frequently borrowed from banks and financial institutions to meet its operational expenditure.

Delhi: Army Chief General Bipin Rawat, Air Chief Marshal Birender Singh Dhanoa, and Naval Chief Sunil Lanba arrive at the Parliament. According to the sources, they are expected to meet the Defence Minister pic.twitter.com/SUutk86m2u

— ANI (@ANI) January 9, 2019

The meeting comes as Congress led by its president Rahul Gandhi has been accusing the Narendra Modi government of corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal with France.

Rahul Gandhi has accused the Modi government of bypassing the defence ministry and the air force in making changes to the deal and have questioned how Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defence was made the offset partner of French firm Dassault after removing HAL.

The Modi government has dismissed all allegations of corruption as false. Reliance Defence and Anil Ambani too have rejected the allegations.

First Published: Jan 09, 2019 13:27 IST