New Delhi: France has now ordered a judicial inquiry into the alleged corruption in the nearly Rs 59,000 crore Rafale deal with India. A French judge has also been appointed for this. This information has been given in a report by a French online journal Mediapart.
Mediapart said the highly sensitive investigation into the 2016 inter-government deal was formally launched on June 14. In which it said that on Friday the Financial Crimes Branch of the French Public Prosecution Services confirmed this.
The French website published several reports on alleged irregularities in the Rafale deal in April 2021, with one of Mediapart claiming that the former head of the Financial Crimes Wing of France’s Public Prosecution Services, Eliane Howlett, had been involved in the Rafale deal despite objections from allies. Stopped the investigation into alleged evidence of corruption. In this report, it was said that Howlett justified his decision to stop the investigation in the name of protecting the interests of France, the functioning of the institutions.
Let us tell you that in 2016 the Government of India had signed a deal to buy 36 Rafale fighter aircraft from France. Out of which about 12 aircraft have been received by India and the rest will be received by 2022. There was a lot of controversy in India during this deal. During the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress government had leveled a lot of allegations against the Modi government on the issue of corruption in the Rafale fighter jet deal.
