Central Bureau of Investigation after being questioned by Supreme Court of India on the alleged delay in the progress of the Barak Missile scandal, the investigating agency has decided to summon former Defence Minister George Fernandez and former Indian Navy Chief Admiral Sushil Kumar, the co accused in the case.
The other booked under the case is Jaya Jaitley the then Samata Party president who is accused of clinching the deal to buy Barak anti –missile defense systems from Israel. The other accused are the arm dealer Sushil Nanda and the ex- treasurer of the Samata party R.K Jain.
The CBI in its case has mentioned that the Navy Chief entered into a conspiracy with other accused to import the missile despite the objection from the Defense Research and Developmental Organisation while accusing Fernandez of approving the deal.
The case came in light during National Democratic Alliance (NDA) regime in 2001 after a sting operation led by Tehelka, a news portal exposed the injudiciousness in fifteen defense cases including the Barak systems.
Tehelka’s interview of R.K Jain gave enough clue in the case who accepted that he had been bribed 1 crore by Suresh Nanda and that he paid the money to Jaya Jaitly. In his interview he also accepted that some of the money went to Fernandez.
After the sting operation was aired George Fernandez resigned from the post of defence minister but later reinstated.
The investigating agency with the help of Interpol has gathered information regarding Nanda’s account and has grilled the arm dealer on the whopping sum of foreign remittance of Rs 400 crore.
Earlier NDA government set up a commission to probe the case but was rejected by United Progressive Alliance (UPA); the matter is now being investigated by CBI after it lodged an FIR on October 9, 2006.
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