PM Modi raises Rahul Gandhi's alleged Scorpene link in Pratapgarh rally

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's had allaeged links with the Scorpene deal and stated reports that mentioned how Gandhi's former business partner benefited from the deal. The PM was addressing an election rally in Uttar Pradesh's Pratapgarh. PM Modi was referring to a report which stated that the co-promoter of UK firm Backops Limited acquired defence offsets during the UPA regime. According to filings made by the Backops UK, Rahul Gandhi and Mcknight were the founding directors of the company. Ulrik McKnight was the 35% owner of Backops UK, in which Gandhi owned a 65% equity between 2003 and 2009 before the firm was wound up. McKnight was later director in a company ythat acquired offset contracts from French defence supplier Naval Group against Scorpene submarines in 2011, the report stated.

Rahul Gandhi has also been associated with a company with similar name Backops Services Private Limited where his sister and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra served as a co-director. 

On April 30, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued a notice to the Congress president over his citizenship after receiving a complaint from Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy. "Ministry has received a representation from MP Dr Subramanian Swamy in which it has been brought out that a Company named Backops Limited was registered in the United Kingdom in the year 2003 and that you were one of the Directors and Secretary of the said Company," the notice read. The company in question was Backops Limited. A firm called Backops Services Private Limited was opened in India with Priyanka and Rahul as directors in 2002. In 2003, it a firm called Backops Limited was incorporated in the UK by Rahul Gandhi and one Ulrik McKnight. Gandhi had 65% stake while McKnight had 35%.

In 2004, in his election affidavit, Gandhi had declared moveable assets belonging to Backops UK. The company was subsequently dissolved in February 2009 along with the Indian entity Backops Services Private Limited.