Middleman had classified MoD info

New Delhi, April 8

In a startling revelation, a French media house has claimed that an Indian business intermediary was secretly paid millions of euros by Dassault Aviation, maker of Rafale fighter jets, and French defence electronics firm Thales. The French team had succeeded in removing the anti-corruption clauses from the fighter contract.

French media house ‘Mediapart’ published the third and final part of the series on the Rafale deal. It said: “Mediapart has obtained a number of confidential documents from the ED (Indian Enforcement Directorate) case file, which shed new light on the behind-the-scenes events of the Rafale deal”.

“Dassault and Thales paid Sushen Gupta several million euros in secret commissions to offshore accounts and shell companies, using inflated invoices for software consulting,” said the report. These payments were besides the questionable contract, , worth 1 million euros, with Dassault for making replica models of Rafale jets.

According to information gained by Mediapart, Gupta obtained confidential documents from the Indian Defence Ministry on the dispute between India and France over the purchase costs of Rafale.

The report said, in August 2015, “Indian negotiators concluded, in a confidential report, that the overall purchase price for the jets, including their weaponry, should be 5.06 billion euros. But in January 2016, Dassault proposed more than double the price: 10.7 billion euros, excluding the missile equipment.” “For the French camp, Sushen Gupta’s assistance was to prove precious. He obtained confidential documents from the Indian Defence Ministry on the subject of the dispute over the purchase costs. These included the minutes of meetings by the Indian negotiating team.

The report said the Indian Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that there were insufficient grounds for opening an investigation into the matter. But that decision was made without the information gathered in the probe by the ED in another case. — TNS