Minister of Defence Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday refuted allegations that officials in her ministry and the Indian Air Force had accepted kickbacks in a 2014 deal with Ukraine for the purchase of spare parts of AN-32 military transport aircraft.
It was a straight “government-to-government deal” and the ministry and the Air Force “had not interacted nor entered into agreement” with any company, PTI quoted the minister as saying. There was no scam of any kind in the deal, she added.
India had signed the agreement with Ukrainian state-run company Spetstechnoexport in November 2014. On Thursday, The Indian Express reported that anti-corruption authorities in the east European country were investigating claims of alleged kickbacks worth $2.6 million (Rs 17.4 crore) that were allegedly paid to Indian defence officials to secure the deal.
On February 13, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine reportedly sent India a “request for international legal assistance” after they found that nearly 11 months after the agreement was signed, Spetstechnoexport had signed another pact with a little-known company for the implementation of the deal. They said the second agreement was not required, and this raised the suspicion that Indian defence officials “might be witness of the above circumstances”.
Ukraine responded to the news report, saying the information it had sought was “confidential”, India Today reported. India’s defence ministry on Thursday said it had received a request for legal assistance from Ukraine in connection with a criminal case, but there were no allegations against Indian officials.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take “immediate action” in the matter.
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