Sunday, 04 July 2021 | PNS | New Delhi
Role of then President Hollande to be investigated in alleged pay-off
A judge in France will probe charges of alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France in 2016. The role of then French President Francois Hollande will also be probed.
The two countries had inked a Government-to-Government deal worth over 7.8 billion Euros (`58,000 crore) for 36 Rafale planes for the IAF.
At least 20 Rafales manufactured by Dassault, France, are already in service in the IAF and the entire lot of 36 will come in by the end of 2022. The first squadron (18 jets) is functional at Ambala while the second squadron will be based at Hashimara, West Bengal.
As per the contract, France has to deliver the jets after carrying out 13 India specific modifications. Moreover, France will have to invest 50 per cent of the contracted amount into the Indian defence and aviation industry as per the offset clause.
The French national financial prosecutors’ office (PNF) said on Friday a judge will investigate the Rafale deal after “corruption” suspicions.
A French investigative website Mediapart in April this year claimed that the PNF and the French anti-corruption agency buried the suspicions surrounding the mega deal. This allegation was levelled when the PNF earlier declined to probe the contract.
The French website on Friday said an independent French magistrate will probe into the charges of corruption and favouritism in the pact.
The judicial probe was ordered by France’s national financial prosecutors’ office following Mediapart’s fresh reports in April of alleged wrongdoings in the deal, Mediapart said.
Citing an investigation by the country’s anti-corruption agency, the publication had reported that Dassault Aviation had paid about one million Euros to an Indian middleman. Dassault Aviation had rejected the allegations of corruption.
In April, Mediapart claimed “millions of euros of hidden commissions” were given to a go-between who helped Dassault conclude the sale, of which “some… could have been given as bribes” to Indian officials. Dassault said no wrongdoing was flagged in the group’s audits.
After the reports, France’s Sherpa NGO, which specialises in financial crime, filed an official complaint for “corruption” and “influence peddling” among other accusations, prompting an investigating magistrate to be designated to probe the deal. The NGO had sought an investigation into the deal in 2018, but the PNF took no action.
The Mediapart said the probe into the inter-Governmental deal signed in 2016 was formally opened on June 14. “A judicial probe into suspected corruption has been opened in France over the 7.8-billion-euro sale to India in 2016 of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter aircraft,” the Mediapart reported.
Mediapart journalist Yann Philippin, who filed a series of reports on the deal, said a first complaint was “buried” in 2019 by a former PNF chief.
“The judicial investigation was finally opened following the revelations of the investigation #RafalePapers of @mediapart and a new complaint from @Asso_Sherpa. A 1st complaint was buried in 2019 by the former PNF boss, Eliane Houlette,” he tweeted.
Mediapart had earlier reported that the former head of the financial crimes branch of France’s public prosecution services, Éliane Houlette, shelved an investigation into alleged evidence of corruption in the Rafale jet deal despite the objection of colleagues.
Her successor as head of the PNF, Jean-François Bohnert, has decided to support the opening of a judicial probe, the news portal says.
The criminal investigation, Mediapart said, will “examine questions surrounding the actions” of former French president François Hollande, who was in office when the Rafale deal was inked, current French president Emmanuel Macron, who was at the time Hollande’s economy and Finance Minister, and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, who was then holding the defence portfolio.
Following the exposé, the French anti-corruption NGO Sherpa filed a complaint with the tribunal of Paris, citing “corruption”, “influence peddling”, “money laundering”, “favouritism” and undue tax waivers surrounding the deal. According to Mediapart, the PNF has confirmed that the newly opened investigation will focus on all four of the alleged crimes.
