Middleman even obtained Excel sheet created by Indian team for calculating purchase price
Arms dealer Sushen Gupta, charge sheeted by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal, supplied classified documents to Dassault Aviation on the Indian negotiating team when talks were gridlocked over benchmark pricing in the €7.87 bn Rafale deal, according to French media outlet Mediapart.
According to information gained by Mediapart, one of those “other defence deals” in the ED investigation which was not identified in the charge sheet, is the Inter-Governmental Agreement (IGA) signed in 2016 for 36 Rafale jets. In the official charge sheet dated May 20, 2019 against Mr. Gupta, the ED wrote that he had gained “sensitive data which should have only been in possession of the Ministry of Defence”. It also said “since kickbacks from the other defence deals are not a subject matter of the present investigation” about the AgustaWestland scandal, “separ
French online news portal Mediapart, which has been pursuing the cover-up in France of the misdeeds in the Rafale deal with India, on Thursday reported that Sushen Gupta, a defence dealer under investigation by the Enforcement Directorate for money laundering in the AgustaWestland chopper scam, received “kickbacks” to influence the purchase of the 36 aircraft in flyaway condition.
Citing the ED investigation, which said Gupta also “received kickbacks” to influence the result of “other defence deals”, the Mediapart report states it has information that one such deal is “the inter-governmental agreement signed in 2016 for the 7.8-billion-euro sale by France to India of 36 Rafale fighter aircraft, built by Dassault Aviation’’.
Middleman earned millions, leaked confidential defence ministry info during Rafale negotiations: Report Ankit Kumar rafale jet controversy France media report
The third and final part of the investigation into the Rafale jets deal by French news portal Mediapart has revealed that businessman Sushen Gupta and his intermediaries received several million Euros from Dassault and its affiliates.
In turn, Gupta and his intermediaries leaked confidential information , including crucial documents of the Indian defence ministry about the Indian negotiating team s positions and arguments it was likely to put forward during the negotiations.
Documents accessed by the French media portal suggest that Sushen Gupta acted as middleman for Dassault Aviation and its industrial partner Thales, for several years starting early 2000s.
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Indian authorities sat on evidence that millions of euros were paid to Rafale middleman: Mediapart
Sushen Gupta, an accused in the VVIP chopper scam case, was paid several million euros over the 15 years leading up to the signing of the Rafale contract. File photo of a Rafale fighter jet at the Ambala air base in Haryana. | PTI
An Indian business middleman, who is an accused in the VVIP chopper scam case, was allegedly secretly paid millions of euros by plane maker Dassault Aviation and French defence electronics firm Thales to influence the Rafale deal according to documents held by the Enforcement Directorate, French investigative journalism outfit