New Delhi: The Narendra Modi-led government is refusing to cooperate with French judges who have requested India’s assistance in their ongoing investigation into alleged corruption in the sale of 36 Dassault-built Rafale fighter jets to India in 2016 for €7.8 billion, says a new report published by the Paris-based investigative website Mediapart.
In a diplomatic note, written on July 25, 2023, the French ambassador to India, Emmanuel Lenain, highlighted challenges in cooperation on criminal cases with India.
“Many cases are handled by our Indian partners with very long delays, often in an incomplete manner,” he said in the note.
Also read: Five Key Questions on the Rafale Deal Which the Modi Govt Must Answer
Modi government’s stalling tactic, refusal to comply with probe
According to Mediapart’s information, the Indian government has de facto refused to comply with a formal request for international cooperation on the case that was made in November 2022 by the two French judges in charge of the criminal investigation into suspected “corruption”, “influence peddling” and “favouritism”.
The ministry drove the French Embassy in India to “distraction for eight months before ending all communication”, the report said.
Therefore, the French ambassador to India, Lenain, who is now France’s ambassador to Brazil, felt compelled to write a diplomatic note on the issue.
In his diplomatic note, he also mentioned that the French government used the “opportunity of the forthcoming G20 anti-corruption summit” on August 11th and 12th in Kolkata to try to “advance certain cases”.
Mediapart had earlier reported how the French and Indian governments are united in their desire to slow down a highly sensitive investigation that could implicate three heads of state or government: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, French president Emmanuel Macron and his predecessor at the Élysée François Hollande.
In October 2018, the French investigating judges had requested the Indian authorities to send them judicial documents concerning Dassault and Sushen Gupta, an influential defence businessman, who was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in the alleged Agusta Westland Chopper scam.
Gupta was also the Rafale deal agent, who received “millions in commission”, Mediapart had reported in April 2021.
The Caravan had also reported on how the Modi government is covering up two decades of defence corruption to save the Rafale deal. It talked about how the Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation under Modi had evidence of kickbacks in 15 major defence deals, and buried it.
In France, the investigating judges have faced two refusals to declassify secret documents, many of which they came across during a search of French defence and aviation company Dassault, Mediapart reported in its latest investigation.
Firstly, as earlier mentioned, in October 2018, the French investigating judges had requested the Indian authorities to send them judicial documents concerning Dassault and Gupta.
Second, the French judges also asked for two searches to be carried out, at which they want to be present: one in the offices of one of Gupta’s companies, the other at the headquarters of Dassault Reliance Aerospace Limited (DRAL).
This is the joint company created by Dassault and the Reliance group, which is run by billionaire Anil Ambani.
In a noteworthy development, The Hindu reported in February 2019 that the Modi government had removed “anti-corruption clauses” from the Rafale deal in 2016, just before the signing of the final contract. This, despite earlier objections from members of the Indian negotiating team, the newspaper reported.
The Print reported in July 2023 that the French aviation major is looking to buy out the Ambani’s stake in their joint venture, DRAL. While the French firm owns a 49% stake in the joint venture, 51% is held by Reliance Defence.
Interestingly, Dassault and Reliance announced their joint venture and the creation of DRAL on October 3, 2016, barely two weeks after India signed the Rafale deal. Mediapart had also reported how Ambani secured tax reduction from France in 2015.
In its latest report, it said that the French ambassador in New Delhi expressed serious concern over the delay in cooperation from Indian authorities regarding a judicial request.
“On November 28, 2022, the embassy’s domestic security attaché went in person to the Ministry of Home Affairs to meet the liaison judge in charge of international cooperation, and handed over the request from the French judges. It was also sent to the ministry by courier a few days later,” it said.
The Indian liaison judge did not get back in touch for two months, it added.
Then, on February 6, 2023, he informed the French authorities that he [the liaison judge] had been moved to another position and was not being immediately replaced.
The French ambassador, Emmanuel Lenain, became impatient.
On April 6, his second in command and his domestic security attaché managed to meet the Ministry of Home Affairs director in charge of international affairs, accompanied by the person in charge of Franco-Indian relations at India’s Ministry of External Affairs.
The two officials promised that they would respond to the French judges’ request “as soon as possible”, the report said.
The French Embassy discovered on April 24 that the Ministry of Home Affairs had finally appointed a new liaison judge responsible for handling requests for cooperation on criminal cases.
“After being contacted, the latter has never responded to our requests. Yet his appointment was confirmed by the Ministry of Home Affairs in an email on July 20, 2023 which was received by the domestic security attaché who once again sought to contact this judge,” said ambassador Lenain in his diplomatic report.
This case, per the report, illustrates in particular the desire of the Modi government, echoed in Paris, to ensure that the French judicial investigation into corruption over the sale of the Rafale jets does not reach an outcome. The result is that the investigating judges face a major hurdle, as they lack both the classified French documents and the Indian judicial documents which prove the payment of secret commissions.
The judges are also facing challenges with regard to this case in France.
In 2019, Éliane Houlette, then head of France’s financial crimes prosecution unit, dismissed a complaint from the anti-corruption NGO Sherpa, against the advice of one of her deputies, to “preserve France’s interests”. It wasn’t until June 2021 that a judge-led investigation was initiated, prompted by a second complaint from Sherpa based on revelations from Mediapart’s ‘Rafale Papers’ investigation.
The Indian government’s communications service and India’s Ministry of Home Affairs did not respond to Mediapart.