PM will not survive Rafale probe, says Rahul alleging Dassault paid kickbacks to Ambani firm

Firing a fresh salvo, Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Friday alleged that French company Dassault Aviation paid Rs 284 crore as "first instalment of kickbacks" to Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence and claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not be able to survive a probe in the Rafale jet deal.

He claimed that the prime minister was spending "sleepless nights" fearing action against him if a probe was conducted into the Rafale deal and that CBI chief Alok Verma was "removed" as he wanted to investigate the deal. Gandhi, however, gave no evidence or documents to substantiate his allegations.

Reliance Group rejected Gandhi's charges as false and said Ambani and his company are being continuously dragged into a political battle in view of upcoming polls.

"The Congress Party has today once again resorted to blatant lies and distorted facts to mount an unwarranted campaign of calumny and falsehoods against the Reliance Group and its Chairman Mr Anil Ambani personally," the group alleged a statement.

There was no reaction from the government or the BJP on the fresh charges, though they have previously rejected all allegations over the Rafale deal.

Gandhi, who has persistently attacked the prime minister over the Rafale deal, said at a press conference that "if an inquiry starts on this, Narendra Modi is not going to survive that inquiry, guaranteed".

The Congress chief claimed that one of the reasons for it is corruption as it is very clear who the decision-maker was. He said nobody will be able to say that it was some top Air Force officer or the Defence Minister or a bureaucrat in the Defence Ministry who finalised the Rafale contract.

"It is clear that it was Narendra Modi and it was the deal done by him to give Anil Ambani Rs 30,000 crore," he alleged.

The Congress chief quoted Dassault Aviation CEO ric Trappier in media reports saying the reason Ambani's firm was given the offset contract and not state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was that it had land for the project. Gandhi alleged that the land was purchased by Ambani's company with the money that Dassault gave.

However, Reliance group said that the Congress party has "falsely alleged" that the funds invested in Reliance Airport Developers Limited (RADL) have been used for the purchase of land at Mihan, Nagpur for the Dassault-Reliance 49:51 pc joint venture.

Gandhi told reporters that "Dassault gave Rs 284 crore to a loss-making company with a valuation of Rs 8.3 lakh. This is the first instalment of kickbacks that has been given to Anil Ambani."