New Delhi, November 9

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday asked his party colleagues not to stop or be afraid of fighting against the "corrupt" central government as truth was with them on every step.

His remarks came a day after a French investigative journal Mediapart made fresh claims that alleged bogus invoices were used that enabled French aircraft maker Dassault Aviation to pay at least 7.5 million euros in secret commissions to a middleman to help it secure the Rafale deal with India.

There was no reaction yet from the defence ministry or Dassault Aviation on the latest report.

"When the truth is with you on every step, then what is there to worry about? My Congress colleagues - keep fighting like this against the corrupt central government. Don't stop, don't get tired, don't be afraid," Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi, using the hashtag "#RafaleScam".

According to Mediapart's investigation, Dassault Aviation paid the kickbacks to the intermediary in Mauritius between 2007 and 2012.

Mediapart had reported in July that a French judge had been appointed to lead a "highly sensitive" judicial investigation into suspected corruption" and favouritism in the Rs 59,000-crore inter-governmental deal with India for the supply of 36 Rafale fighter jets.

The NDA government had inked the deal on September 23, 2016, to procure 36 Rafale jets from Dassault Aviation after a nearly seven-year exercise to procure 126 Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) for the Indian Air Force did not fructify during the UPA regime.

The Congress had accused the government of massive irregularities in the deal, alleging that it was procuring each aircraft at a cost of over Rs 1,670 crore as against Rs 526 crore finalised by the UPA government during the negotiations for the MMRCA.

Prior to the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress had raised several questions about the deal and alleged corruption, but the government had rejected all the charges.

Rafale manufacturer Dassault Aviation and India's defence ministry have previously trashed allegations of any corruption in the contract. PTI