New investigations by an independent French online investigation portal Mediapart has revealed that both the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) have had proof since October 2018 that French aviation firm Dassault paid at least 7.5 million Euros in secret commissions to middleman Sushen Gupta. This was in the context of the French firm’s long and ultimately successful attempt to secure a 7.8 billion Euro deal in 2016 to sell 36 of its Rafale fighters to India.
The documents point to how Sushen Gupta acted as an intermediary for Dassault Aviation over the Rafale deal. His Mauritian company Interstellar Technologies received at least 7.5 million Euros from the French aviation firm between 2007 and 2012, thanks to IT contracts that were clearly overbilled, and from which most of the money was discreetly sent to Mauritius using a system of alleged false invoices.
If this alleged act of corruption took place before the current Modi government was in power, why has no action been taken? Mitali Mukherjee spoke with Yann Philippin of Mediapart to find out more.