Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Thursday, 31 May, urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take "immediate action" against “corrupt” officials, citing a media report alleging that Ukraine is probing kickbacks worth crores paid to India's Defence Ministry officials for an aircraft spares deal.
Posting the Indian Express report, Gandhi tweeted:
According to the report, Ukraine is currently investigating alleged kickbacks amounting to USD 2.6 million (Rs 17.55 crore) in India's purchase of military transport spares. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NAB) reportedly suspects the involvement of Indian Defence Ministry officials, the report alleged.
According to records accessed by the daily, the Ukrainian Anti-Corruption Bureau has requested the Ministry of Home Affairs for “international legal assistance”– which translated to identification of the officials who were involved in the transactions.
The Ministry of Defence, in a statement to ANI, denied the report’s allegations, calling it “misleading news”.
Embassy of Ukraine in India had sent a request to MHA and MEA, Govt. of India dated 06.03.2018 for legal assistance in investigation of a criminal case filed against officials of Ukraine Government’s State Owned Enterprise (STE). This is as per international treaty between India and Ukraine. This request contains a list of questions to be answered. There are no allegations against any Indian Govt. official. Government of India has only been requested to render legal assistanceMinistry of Defence statement
The NAB zeroed in on its allegation after it emerged that Ukraine’s state-owned Spetstechnoexport, which had signed the deal with MoD in 2014, transferred USD 2.6 million to the account of a Global Marketing Ltd in UAE almost 11 months after the deal had been confirmed.
According to the Indian Express, the NAB has sought clarification on the involvement of Global Marketing in the “completion/conclusion of the contracts” between any defence ministry officials and Global Marketing in other areas.
The NAB reportedly believes that since the transaction between Global Marketing and Spetstechnoexport was done after the deal with the Defence Ministry was inked, the Indian officials “might be witness of the above circumstances.”
The NAB has also reportedly reached out to Dubai’s Noor Islamic Bank seeking information on all transactions from Global Marketing’s account between 2015 to 2018.
(With inputs from PTI, ANI, and IANS)
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