Cong team meets CVC, seeks FIR in jet deal

New Delhi, Sept. 24: A delegation of senior Congress leaders met the Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) on Monday and demanded registration of a case in alleged corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal.

The meeting comes days after a Congress delegation met the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) and urged the apex auditor to prepare a report on the alleged irregularities in the deal and present it in Parliament.

The delegation met CVC K.V. Chowdary and submitted a detailed memorandum, accusing the government of causing loss to the public exchequer and endangering national security by bypassing state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in favour of some businessman “friends” for offset contract.

“Rafale scam has now emerged as India’s biggest defence scam. Tracks of corruption are getting unravelled by the day with repeated disclosures getting no answers from the defence ministry of the government of the day. The stench of corruption and cronyism in the Rafale deal is nauseating, requiring urgent intervention by your goodself,” the Congress memorandum said.

The memorandum said that as per law, the government is bound to provide full information to the CVC, “entire deal, its contours, nature of contract, absence of favouritism, corruption, crony capitalism, violation of law and procedures and the principles of level playing field are part of CVC’s domain to examine and to return a finding”.

“The government is bound to disclose the price of 36 aircraft to scrutiny by CVC in light of the serious allegations of corruption and loss of money to public exchequer. We, therefore, request the CVC to undertake its statutory duty by examining record threadbare, so that corruption is brought out as the earliest,” it further said.

The delegation comprised senior Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Ahmed Patel, Anand Sharma, Kapil Sibal, Randeep Singh. —PTI