Cong seeks CAG audit of Rafale

New Delhi, Oct. 4: The Congress on Thursday urged the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India to carry out a forensic audit of the “`60,150 crore” Rafale fighter jet deal and bring all “facts” on record to enable Parliament to fix accountability for the alleged scam in the contract.

A delegation of Congress leaders met the CAG Rajiv Mehrishi, their second visit within a month over the Rafale deal, and presented a memorandum to him along with fresh documents. The party had met the CAG on September 19 and thereafter the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) on September 24 for a probe into the deal.

Subsequent to the submissions made before the CAG earlier in the Rafale ‘scam’, the Congress alleged that documents and revelations made at the highest level in India and France have “exposed a deep rooted sinister conspiracy and a clear cut case of loss to public exchequer”.

“The Rafale scam has now emerged as India’s biggest ‘defence scam’. Skeletons are tumbling out of the closet everyday with repeated disclosures getting zero answers from the defence ministry. Infact, the only ‘truth’ of this government is ‘subterfuge’. The stench of ‘corruption’ and ‘cronyism’ in the Rafale Deal is nauseating, requiring urgent intervention,” the Congress memorandum said.

The party also alleged that the government is “unforgivably guilty” of causing loss to the public exchequer worth `41,205 crore in the purchase of 36 ‘Made in France’ Rafale aircrafts, ‘off the shelf ’ without ‘Transfer of Technology’. It also alleged that in a classic case of blatant ‘crony capitalism’, private entity Reliance Defence was deliberately enriched by award of a `30,000 crore offset contract at the cost of Public Sector Undertaking Hindustan

Aeronautics Limited (HAL) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. — PTI