Click to play videoNew Delhi: The Barak missile was bought from Israel for the Indian army on his approval allegedly defying expert advice. Now the same missile have come back to haunt the former defence minister.
The defence of George Fernandes finally seems to be cracking after CBI filed an FIR against him, his long time political companion Jaya Jaitley and former Navy Chief Sushil Kumar for receiving kickbacks in buying Barak missile and anti-missile systems from Israel.
CBI alleges that Fernandes and Jaitley received 3 per cent of the Rs 1125 crore deal as commission. The commission was allegedly paid by Suresh Nanda, son of former retired Admiral S M Nanda, whose house and office was also raided by CBI.
CBI spokesperson G Mohanty says, "A hefty commission of about Rs 2 crore have been paid allegedly to the president of a political party who function from the residence of the then Raksha Mantri."
The former defence minister was quick to react – political vendetta – he claimed former navy chief Sushil Kumar also dismissed the allegations.
“People who are alleging this have lost their mind. When we decided to buy Barak it was done with the consent of the present President of India,” Fernandes says.
Former Navy Chief Admiral Sushil Kumar says, “The Barak missile was much a desire as I can recollect. It’s been a very old requirement of the Navy long before I became the chief. It was approved by chiefs before me.”
The Congress was obviously thrilled with the development. It is the UPA, which has ordered the inquiry into 44 defence deals concluded during the NDA regime.
Many believe that this might finally bring the curtains down on George Fernandes's long and eventful political career – already on its last leg.
But Tuesday's raids and the CBI's press conference also proved something which the political establishment has refused to accept for long that defence deals do not happen without the approval of the serving defence minister.
(For updates you can share with your friends, follow IBNLive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)
displayed with permission. Use of the CNN name and/or logo on or as part of CNN-IBN does not derogate from the intellectual property rights of Cable News Network in respect of them.