BJP on Tuesday stepped up attack on the Congress on the Rafale deal controversy alleging a nexus between Congress president Rahul Gandhi’s brother-in-law Robert Vadra and arms dealer and ‘middleman’ Sanjay Bhandari.
“Bhandari, who has close links with Vadra, formed a company named Offset India Solutions (OIS) in 2008 and he formed a joint venture with Rafaut, an aeronautics and armament company, as he tried to enter into an offset clause in the Rafale fighter jets deal through the back door,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said here at a press conference.
The BJP leader alleged that the then UPA Government mounted pressure on the French firm Dassault Aviation to give works to Bhandari’s company.
“But when Dassault verified the infrastructure of OIS, it found that they did not have the required criteria. It also found Bhandari’s links with Vadra. So Dassault became adamant and they made it clear that they do not want to enter into any kind of deal with the OIS,” he alleged. .
“And this was the reason why the Rafale deal was then scrapped after years of negotiations as Vadra was not getting the commission out of the deal,” he accused.
Patra also said that the Congress played with national security and the strength of the Indian Air Force.
He said Bhandrari who has fled abroad was brought under investigation by the Modi Government. He said that Bhandari’s company was also blacklisted by the Indian Government.
“When the BJP Government came to power in 2014, investigations started against Bhandari. And during raids at 18 places in 2016 at the premises of Bhandari a lot of classified documents were recovered,” he said.
Alleging links between Vadra and Bhandari, the BJP leader said that during raids in 2016, the emails exchanged between Vadra, Bhandari, Vadra’s close associate Manoj Arora and a relative of Bhandari named Sumit Chahdha, also came to the fore.
“In an email it was revealed that Bhandari’s relative Chahdha paid Rs 19 crore for a flat in London for Vadra,” Patra alleged.
He also alleged that Bhandari’s firm also paid for the air travels of Vadra in 2012.
The BJP leader further alleged that the then Congress Government also rejected Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)-developed Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 and went for the Swiss aircraft Pilatus in 2012.
“This deal was given to the Swiss company to bribe the Gandhi family and to pay commission on the deal to the Gandhi family,” he alleged.
Meanwhile, Union Law Minister Ravishankar Prasad hit out at Congress president for his “fun has just begun” remark over Rafale deal.
Prasad was quoted by the news agency ANI that nothing else could be expected from a leader whose entire family is involved in scams.
The Union Minister said “We can not expect anything better from a leader whose entire family is involved in scams be it Bofors or National Herald. It is s matter a shame that a man who is a big liar and irresponsible is their party president.”