A fresh petition has been filed in the Supreme Court for a court-monitored probe into the 2016 Rafale fighters jet deal on the basis of "new revelations" by a French portal that manufacturers Dassault Aviation paid approximately one million Euro to middlemen.
Advocate Manohar Lal Sharma, in his petition, made Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Sushen Mohan Gupta of Defsys Solutions Pvt Ltd, and Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL) as parties in the matter.
The top court had earlier on December 14, 2018, dismissed a batch of petitions, including by Sharma, seeking a probe into the deal, and also rejected the review petitions against the judgement on November 14, 2019.
In his plea, Sharma sought a direction of the court for registration of FIR against the accused persons under Sections 420 (Cheating), 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with for offences with Prevention of Corruption Act.
He alleged that certain accused persons had illegally engaged themselves to secure secret papers from the defence ministry to secure the Rafale deal on September 23, 2016.
He said the cause of action arose on April 5, 2021, as an investigation report by the AFA (France CAG) declared that Dassault gave one million euro to middlemen of India as a bribe.
Agence Française Anticorruption (AFA) functioned in a capacity similar to India’s Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), with the aim of checking whether large companies implemented the anti-corruption procedures. However, unlike the CAG, the AFA also audited private firms. In its report, the AFA did disclose corruption in the Rafale deal, he claimed.
He sought an independent probe into the case under the supervision of the top court for prosecution of the accused.
He sought a direction for cancelling the 2016 agreement for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighters jets from Dassault France, having been hit by "fraud, corruption and the offence under the Official Secret Act".
He also contended that a direction must be issued by the court to recover the entire advanced money with a penalty and to blacklist Dassault Aviation in future defence deals.