While Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh categorically stated that no inquiry would be conducted on the basis of allegations published in Canada about bribes changing hands in an aborted $ 100-million Air India deal in 2007, the Central Bureau of Investigation is already conducting what is being described as a “discreet inquiry” in the case.
The Canadian authorities, through a diplomatic process, briefed the CBI about the allegations, probably even before they were published in The Globe and Mail. Following a personal interaction with Canadian officials, the CBI has been “actively” inquiring into the 2007 deal for purchase of facial recognition biometric systems from a Canadian firm named CryptoMetrics. A few days ago, the CBI asked Canadian authorities for a written statement of Indo-Canadian businessman Nazir Karigar, whom the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is planning to prosecute under the newly-legislated Foreign Public Officials Act.
Heavy Industries Minister and former civil aviation minister Praful Patel was named by the newspaper as an intended beneficiary of a $ 250,000 bribe supposed to have been given by Karigar. Calling the allegations in the report “baseless and false”, Patel sent a letter to the Prime Minister requesting him to get all the documents related to the aborted contract examined by any agency and then convey the factual position to the authorities in Canada to avoid any “embarrassment to the Government of India or to me personally”.
According to the news report, Karigar used his acquaintance with former Mumbai police chief Hassan Gafoor, who was then with Air India, to push his case — a claim Gafoor has denied.
The CBI has already inquired into the facts of the pitch made by CryptoMetrics for the sale of the systems to Air India and learnt that the deal fell through due to internal objections raised by officials in Air India and the Civil Aviation Ministry itself. The agency would only at a later stage decide whether the case was a fit one for registering either a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) or a Regular Case (RC) or whether it should be left unregistered.
The Canadian authorities, through a diplomatic process, briefed the CBI about the allegations, probably even before they were published in The Globe and Mail. Following a personal interaction with Canadian officials, the CBI has been “actively” inquiring into the 2007 deal for purchase of facial recognition biometric systems from a Canadian firm named CryptoMetrics. A few days ago, the CBI asked Canadian authorities for a written statement of Indo-Canadian businessman Nazir Karigar, whom the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is planning to prosecute under the newly-legislated Foreign Public Officials Act.
Heavy Industries Minister and former civil aviation minister Praful Patel was named by the newspaper as an intended beneficiary of a $ 250,000 bribe supposed to have been given by Karigar. Calling the allegations in the report “baseless and false”, Patel sent a letter to the Prime Minister requesting him to get all the documents related to the aborted contract examined by any agency and then convey the factual position to the authorities in Canada to avoid any “embarrassment to the Government of India or to me personally”.
According to the news report, Karigar used his acquaintance with former Mumbai police chief Hassan Gafoor, who was then with Air India, to push his case — a claim Gafoor has denied.
The CBI has already inquired into the facts of the pitch made by CryptoMetrics for the sale of the systems to Air India and learnt that the deal fell through due to internal objections raised by officials in Air India and the Civil Aviation Ministry itself. The agency would only at a later stage decide whether the case was a fit one for registering either a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) or a Regular Case (RC) or whether it should be left unregistered.
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