AAP demands scrapping of Rafale deal, sends legal notice to Nirmala Sitharaman

Jumping into the controversy over Rafale deal, Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Tuesday said that he had sent a legal notice to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman over alleged irregularities in the deal.

In the notice to Sitharaman, the AAP leader demanded that the Rafale deal be cancelled and the Dassault Reliance Aerospace be barred from handling the manufacturing of the fighter jets.

“My client (Singh) is constrained to issue this legal notice in the subject matter (Rafale Deal) due to your covert actions and deeds with regard to the pricing and induction of strategic partner of a company with zero credentials much to the detriment to the security of the nation,” the notice read.

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The AAP leader demanded a Supreme Court-monitored investigation by the special investigation team (SIT). He also threatened to move to the court if the defence minister didn’t pay heed to his demands.

Reacting to the deals, Singh said, “The Rafale deal involves a ‘mahaghotala’ (mega scam) of Rs 36,000 crore. When I raised the issue in the Parliament, along with other UPA MPs, Union Minister of State for Defence Subhash Bhamre gave contradictory replies.”

“Our allegations have been proved by French former president (Francois) Hollande’s statement. I also asked the government why the 78-year-old HAL was denied manufacturing of the planes, while a 12-day-old Reliance company was given (the contract). No reply has been given by the government,” he added.

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The Rafale controversy took a new turn last week after Hollande, who was the French president when the Rs 58,000-crore deal was announced, was quoted as saying by French publication Mediapart that France was given “no choice” on the selection of the Indian partner for Dassault and the Indian government had proposed the name of Reliance as the offset partner for the aerospace giant.

(With inputs from PTI)