Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday took to twitter to highlight alleged kickbacks in a defence contract and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take action against ‘corrupt’ officials.
Playing on the Prime Minister’s surname, Mr. Gandhi said, “Ministry Of Defence, India (MODI) officials, accused of making millions of $s in kickbacks via Dubai by Ukrainian Govt. in AN32 deal. Modi ji, as our self proclaimed chokidar, I urge you to take immediate action against your corrupt MODI officials.” Using hash tag #BJPDefenceScam, the Congress chief also tagged a news report that claimed that Ukrainian authorities had written to India’s Home Ministry seeking help in probing kickbacks that were reportedly paid to secure a spares part supply deal to the Indian Air Force. The anti-corruption bureau of the Ukrainian government is investigating kickbacks, allegedly to the tune of ₹17.55 crore ($2.6million), for a deal to supply spares to IAF’s main transporter AN32.
Citing documents in the public domain, former Minister Manish Tewari alleged at a press conference that the Modi government had signed a contract for procurement of spares for the AN32 fleet on November 26, 2014. “Despite the contract not having been fulfilled, the Ministry of Defence/IAF and the supplier signed the completion certificates,’’ he said.
