Congress chief Rahul Gandhi on Friday alleged that Dassault Aviation paid Rs 284 crore to Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence as the "first instalment of kickbacks" and claimed Prime Minister Narendra Modi was having "sleepless nights" fearing action if a probe was conducted into the Rafale deal.
"If an inquiry starts on this Mr Modi is not going to survive it. Guaranteed. One, because of corruption. Two, because it's very clear who the decision maker was...It was Narendra Modi & it was a deal done by Narendra Modi to give Anil Ambani Rs 30000 Cr," Rahul said.
"Rafale is an open and shut case. It is simply a PM Modi-Anil Ambani partnership," Rahul added.
Speaking at a press meet, Rahul alleged that CBI chief Alok Verma was removed as he wanted to investigate the deal.
There was no immediate reaction from the government and Ambani on the fresh charges made by Gandhi. However, they have previously rejected all allegations made over the Rafale deal.
Dassault Aviation CEO Éric Trappier has said 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, he said, alleging the land was purchased by Ambani's company with the money that Dassault gave.
"The Dassault CEO had said the reason HAL wasn't given the contract was that Anil Ambani had land. Now it turns out that the land that Anil Ambani had was purchased by money given by Dassault," he said.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday sought more information from the government on the Rafale jet deal, including details of its pricing and deemed advantages.
"The court would also like to be apprised of the details with regard to the pricing/cost, particularly, the advantage thereof, if any, which again will be submitted to the court in a sealed cover," the bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice K.M. Joseph said.
(With inputs from PTI)
