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NEW DELHI: Former BJP ministers in the NDA-I government, Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie , and lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Wednesday demanded a time-bound “forensic audit” by CAG into the Rs 59,000 crore deal for 36 French Rafale fighters, alleging it was the country’s biggest-ever defence scam.

Sinha said a forensic audit into the September 2016 deal would be a better option than a joint parliamentary committee. Shourie said even if CAG submitted “a defective report”, it would have to face scrutiny by Parliament and its public accounts committee to pass muster.

The trio directly blamed PM Modi for the alleged scam, claiming the defence ministry, IAF and even the then foreign secretary S Jaishankar were kept in the dark till the announcement was suddenly made.

“It’s a textbook case of criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act, misuse of public office, and of enriching parties at the expense of national interest,” said Bhushan. The trio said Modi’s decision whittled down the IAF’s requirement for 126 fighters to just 36, and at an additional cost of over Rs 1,000 crore per jet.

Moreover, defence PSU Hindustan Aeronautics, which was to produce 108 of the 126 jets with transfer of technology from Dassault Aviation, was “kicked out” of the fresh deal. “Instead, Reliance Defence, which has absolutely no experience in manufacturing aerospace and defence equipment, became the main offsets partner of Dassault,” said Shourie.

Responding to the charges, Reliance Defence CEO Rajesh Dhingra said no contract has yet been given to any Reliance Group company by the MoD in connection with the deal. “As all 36 jets are to be delivered in ‘flyaway’ condition by Dassault, how is the question of experience in manufacturing aircraft relevant here?”

