Rajiv Gandhi’s involvement in corrupt deals is getting exposed one by one despite his built up image of Mr.Clean.
His earlier scam in Bofors is haunting the Congress
Rajiv Gandhi. Late PM ,India
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The money for the Bofors deal was paid into his account and KGB paid Sonia gandhi and Rahul Gandhi as well.
Read my posts on these.
The Hindu , in an exposure revealed that wikileaks released cables indicating that Rajiv Gandhi was the middleman in the Viggen fighter Aircraft deal.
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Much before he became Prime Minister, during his years as an Indian Airlines pilot, Rajiv Gandhi may have been a middleman for the Swedish company Saab-Scania, when it was trying to sell its Viggen fighter aircraft to India in the 1970s.
The astonishing revelation that he was the “main Indian negotiator” for a massive aircraft deal for which his “family” connections were seen as valuable, is contained in the Kissinger Cables, the latest tranche of U.S diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks and accessed by The Hindu as part of an investigative collaboration. The cables will be released on Monday.
The British SEPECAT Jaguar eventually won the race, from which Saab was forced to withdraw by the U.S.
Rajiv Gandhi, who kept away from politics until he was pushed into it by his mother Indira after the death of his brother Sanjay in 1980, came into public life with a squeaky clean image. Years later, a controversy over bribes paid in another military deal with a different Swedish company, Bofors, was to lead to Rajiv’s and the Congress’s defeat in the 1989 elections.
A series of 41 cables between 1974 and 1976 give glimpses into the “fighter sweepstakes” in India, with one wryly observing that the Swedish company had “understood the importance of family influences in the final decision in the fighter sweepstakes.”
Dassault, the French aircraft maker, too had figured this out. According to the cable, their negotiator for the Mirage fighter aircraft was the son-in-law of Air Marshal O.P. Mehra, then Air Chief.
SION NOT TO PURCHASE BRITISH JAGUAR BECAUSE OF HER PREJUDICES AGAINST BRITISH. DECISION WOULD BE BETWEEN MIRAGE AND VIGGEN. THE SWEDISH DIPLOMAT SAID THAT SWEDEN’S NEUTRAL POSITION IN WORLD POLI- TICS IS OFFSETTING VIGGEN’S HIGHER COST. HE EXPRESSED IRRITATION AT THE WAY MRS. GANDHI IS PERSONALLY DOMINATING NE- GOTIATIONS, WITHOUT INVOLVEMENT OF INDIAN AIR FORCE OFFICERS. 3. ACCORDING TO SWEDISH EMBOFF, NEGOTIATIONS WITH SWEDES ARE FOR 50 VIGGEN AIRCRAFT TO BE DELIVERED AT $4-5 MILLION PER AIRCRAFT* SWEDES BELIEVE INDIANS HAVE MADE DECISION NOT TO PURCHASE ANY MORE SOVIET MILITARY AIRCRAFT. 4. DAO COMMENT: DAO HAS NO ADDITIONAL INFORMATION TO EITHER REFUTE OR CONFIRM THE ABOVE INFORMATION. SAXBE CONFIDENTIAL NNN”
Where the original document is now held – online or on microfilm, or remains in “ADS” (State Department’s 1973 Automated Data System of indexing by TAGS of electronic telegrams and P-reels) with the text either garbled, not converted or unretrievable.
Cablegate does not originally have this field. We have given it the entry ‘TEXT ONLINE’.
The Government of India has just instituted an inquiry and the CBI officers have left for Italy to get to know the details.
In the meanwhile Dr. Subramanian Swamy posted in Facebook,
“My sources say that the provision of 28 million euros for “the family” disclosed in the 568 page investigation report is for TDK(Sonia) sisters.”: Subramanian Swamy
Two sisters of Sonia, Anushka and Nadia under scanner. Italians tell me,says Subramanian Swamy”
The story unraveling reminds me of the sequence of events in Bofors scam.
The Guardian Echoes this.
‘The copter scam brings to mind the Bofors scam of the 1980s when Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister. When the first details of the Bofors scam emerged in 1987,it became apparent that a small group of persons close to Rajiv Gandhi in India and Europe had financially benefitted from the contract.“
Italian media is focusing on the Congress connection and the Indian media Pioneer is following it up.
Here are the updates .
Story:
AgustaWestland chopper deal too has telltale signs of a Congress connection. According to the Italian newspaper ‘Lettera 43’, main commission agent Christian Michel’s late father was “close to the Congress party”, and the other middleman, Guido Ralph Haschke, was a Director of Emaar-MGF, a real estate company owned by relatives of Kanishka Singh, who is associated with a Congress high-up.
Michel was also the agent of Dassault, which has emerged as the lowest bidder for the Indian Air Force’s 10 billion dollar deal for Rafale fighter jets, supposed to be the world’s biggest tender.
According to the Italian newspaper report on November 20, 2012, the “mysterious” British citizen Michel, described as “Man of Bears”, had received 60 per cent (around `210 crore) of the kickback amount of 51 million Euros (around `360 crore) from the Finmeccanica, the manufactures of AgustaWestland choppers.
The investigation report filed in the Italian court corroborated the findings. It said that the CEO of Finmeccanica, Giuseppe Orsi, and AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini had paid 30 million Euros (`217 crore) to Christian Michel. “Orsi and Spagnolin, moreover, paid Christian Michel a total amount of about Euros 30 million, partly destined to support the corrupt activity meant to bag the order and partly to implement the contract,” the document said.
“Born in 1961, Michel is little known to the public. On the internet, there are no evidences of his business or his statement. Not a photo or an interview. Yet, Michel is very well introduced in Defence establishments in New Delhi,” says the Italian newspaper report titled “Christian Michel, the English middleman of Finmeccanica.”
“His contacts are stronger especially with the Indian Defence, that he has inherited from his father, Wolfgang Max Michel Richard, a British businessman who was very active in India between 80s and 90s and was close to the Congress party,” the reports says.
The detailed article on the business background of the “mysterious” Michel stated that his father had business interests in Libya, Russia, Iran and Iraq. He was a Labour party’s fund-raiser before his death in August 2012.
Italian newspaper reports as well as French Court records establish that Michel was an agent of Dassault, which is set to bag the 10 billion dollar worth deal from Indian Air Force.
According to these reports, in 2004, Michel sued Dassault over non-payment of commission for the purchase of Mirage aircraft for Indian Air Force in 2000. However, Michel lost the case at Paris Commerical Tribunal on the technical grounds that his agreement with Dassault had expired.
Haschke case is all more bizarre. The man who confessed to the Italian court on his connections with former Air Chief SP Tyagi was the Director of Emmar MGF, the firm which bagged the biggest deal in connection with Commonwealth Games. Haschke is neither builder nor a real estate enterprenur, so his connection with Emmar MGF is bound to raise eyebrows.
Finmeccanica is an Italian industry primarily in the defense and aerospace.
The controversial real estate giant is still being probed by the CBI for alleged irregularities in the construction of the Games Village Complex in Delhi. Late Ved Prakash Gupta, the founder of Emmar MGF, was the maternal grandfather of Kanishka Singh. Kanishka’s father late SK Singh was the promoter of Emmar MGF, which was doled out controversial favour by the Delhi Development Authority after it bagged the contract for building the CWG Village.
According to the prospectus filed by Emmar MGF with SEBI, Haschke was Director in September 2009. But in December 2009, he resigned after the Games scandal exploded and Opposition leaders and former BJP chief Nitin Gadkari alleged that the Emmar MGF had been favoured due to its link with Kanishka Singh.
“Guido Ralph Haschke , and instead the prosecutor Chest Arstizio which investigates Indian Affairs of Agusta Westland, a subsidiary of Finmeccanica, has been able to track down almost all the files on your hard disk. And so the consultant with dual passports, has not been explained to investigators that his truth. INDIANA THE TRACK. Haschke is under investigation for corruption and international money laundering in the investigation into alleged bribes paid by Agusta Westland in securing a contract from 550 million euro by the Indian government. On 13 November, when questioned by the magistrates of Chest hold the file, Haschke has revealed that he had paid money in most circumstances the former commercial director of Finmeccanica, Paul Pozzessere , and other managers of the Group, for advice. But also provided other elements useful for investigations concerning the trend in India. TANGENT TO THE 51 MILLION. 550 million in the deal concluded with the Indian air force is investigating the hypothesis, Agusta Westland would pay 51 million euro of sovraffaturazioni . Money that, according to investigators, would be back in part to the availability of Haschke (20 million), and partly in the hands of Christian Michel, another mysterious consultant Finmeccanica, which would then shot some of the money, about 10 million euro, Giuseppe Orsi, CEO of Finmeccanica under investigation for corruption, to meet the demands of some political parties. MICHEL, “MAN OF BEARS.” By Michel spoke for the first time in November 2011, Lorenzo Borgogni, former head of external relations the group in Naples pm, indicating the mediator English as a “man of Bears.” “On the occasion of this transaction,” he said, referring to the Neapolitan pm Borgogni to order Indian, “was expected initial charge of € 40 million from correspond to two intermediaries, Guido Haschke and Christian Michel. ” Michel “was a man of Bears and that was what he had been appointed by Bears to return the money in the pockets of the same Bears.” But who is Christian Michel?
Michel’s family and the closeness to the Labour Party…
Note where he observes that he was elated as soon as he completed the mission and his feelings when he came to know that he was misinformed or dis-informed by his Controller.
Humanity always wins, the artificial barriers man has created not withstanding.
For Pakistanis,remember we were one till yesterday.
Why not become one again to-morrow?
Connecting across the border courtesy e-mail, Qais Hussain, a Flying Officer during the 1965 India-Pakistan conflict, sent a quiet note after tracing Farida Singh, daughter of Jahangir ‘Jangoo’ Engineer, who was flying a State government plane, about the circumstances under which he brought it down.
“I have received an excellent response from Ms. Farida Singh. If I took one step, she has taken two, but I respect her privacy and would share the contents of her response only after receiving her consent,” the 70-year-old Mr. Hussain told The Hindu over telephone from Islamabad on Wednesday.
A resident of Lahore, Mr. Hussain said he wrote an email to Ms. Singh on August 5 with the note of condolence as well as details of the incident. He also thanked the people through whom he was able to reach her and convey what happened 46 years ago.
In his email, the former Pakistan Air Force Officer stated that he shot the Beechcraft aircraft that was being flown by her father — one of three famous Engineer brothers in the Indian Air Force — after it showed up on the Pakistan radars, having drifted by many miles and going up and down over the border area of Rann of Kutch for quite some time.
Having read accounts in the Indian media, which, he said, were not accurate, Mr. Hussain said he followed the orders of his controller and had a sense of achievement after completing the mission.
“Nonetheless, the unfortunate part in all this is that I had to execute the orders of my controller. Mrs Singh, I have chosen to go into this detail to tell you that it all happened in the line of duty and it was not governed by the concept that ‘everything is fair in love and war,’ the way it has been portrayed by the Indian media due to lack of information. I did not play foul and went by the rules of business but the unfortunate loss of precious lives, no matter how it happens, hurts each human and I am no exception. I feel sorry for you, your family and the other seven families who lost their dearest ones. I feel greatly grieved that you lost your brother Noshir recently.
If an opportunity ever arises that I could meet you face to face to condole the death of your father 46 years back I would grab it with both hands. I would highly appreciate if you please convey my feelings to the other members of your family, who were equally hurt by the untimely departure of Jungoo to the next world. I hope and pray that you and your family stay well. My best regards…Qais.
Peter Bleach served in British military intelligence in Belfast, fought for Ian Smith's white supremacists in Rhodesia and worked as a private eye in Britain before moving into the arms trade
Peter Bleach,one of the accused in the Purulia arms drop case of 1995 and who has served Eight years in Indian Jail, has revealed startling facts.
He was approached by a man who wanted some arms to be dropped into India.
Bleach, though an Armsdealer, got suspicious and informed MI5( Internal Security) of British Intelligence.
He was informed that the Government of India was interested in finding out the destination of these Arms and they would like Bleach to go ahead to enable Government of India to arrest the conspirators.
“The Purulia arms drop case was an infamous incident in which unauthorised arms were dropped from an Antonov An-26 aircraft in Purulia district in the state of West Bengal in India on 17 December 1995.
A Latvian aircraft dropped a large consignment of arms including several hundred AK-47 rifles and more than a million rounds of ammunition over a large area in Jhalda, Ghatanga, Belamu, Maramu villages of Purulia district on the night of 17 December 1995.[citation needed] Several days later, when the plane re-entered Indian airspace, it was intercepted by the Indian Air ForceMiG-21 and forced to land in Mumbai.[citation needed] While the true motive of the operation remains shrouded in mystery and conjecture, it has been alleged that arms were intended for the socio-spiritual organization Ananda Marga (Sanskrit for “The Path of Bliss”).
An Indian court in 1997 determined that the Ananda Marga group was indeed the intended recipient of the guns and ammunition[1]. Based on the pilot’s testimony, along with other evidence such as a photograph of the Ananda Marga headquarters on the aircraft, the Judge ruled: [2]
as per the materials available I hold that it has been established from the materials on record that the places where the arms were targeted to be dropped were of Anandamargies and precisely three storied white building was the target point and at that target point the arms were tried to be dropped from a flying aircraft and the aircraft has been pin pointed as per the evidence and materials on record.
However, despite the passage of years, many details of the incident are wrapped in mystery, and there has been considerable speculation as to the purpose and modality of the operation.
The crew of the aircraft consisted of five Latvian citizens and Peter Bleach, a British citizen Peter and an ex Special Air Service operative turned mercenary who was based in Yorkshire and involved in arms dealing.[citation needed] They were arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment while alleged kingpinNiels Christian Nielsen (aka Kim Peter Davy), a Danish citizen and member of the Ananda Margagroup[3], escaped. Later, an Interpolred notice was issued against him. Following the intervention of Russian authorities, the Latvian crew (who gained Russian citizenship while in Indian custody) were later pardoned and released in 2000. Peter Bleach, too, was released on 4 February 2004, via a presidential pardon, allegedly due to persistent British pressure. In 2007 Kim Davy was traced by Denmark authorities, and it is possible he may be extradited to India for trial[4].”
Another key suspect Kim Davy, aka Niels Christian Nielsen, a Danish citizen is supposed to be the master mind.
Though apprehended, he escaped from India.
Now it appears that Kim Davy, who is in Denmark, is likely to be extradited to India.
Peter Bleach poses these points.
He has informed MI 5 which stated that it had informed India and he has copies of statements made to MI5.
David Shealor was the case officer.
Another MI 5 officer Encock perjured in Indian Court to have Bleach incarcerated.
Bleach had given 30 page statement detailing the entire operation to Dutt .
Dutt later denied having received any statement.
Pereira,Nair and Mukkophadhyaya were the other officers involved.
Nair went to Latvia to threaten the Latvian crew against giving media interviews.
These officers showed total lack of interest in Bleach’s statement, despite the seriousness of the crime and the public focus it has generated.
Radar was switched off at the time of the drop.
Kim Davy did not escape but was spirited away by an Indian Diplomat in his car.
Bleach was never produced before Indian Judge.
Six Senior Police officers retracted their Statements.
Bleach was working with the British Government, but not employed by it.
He was well taken care of in Indian prison, courtesy of British Deputy High Commissioner, including food sent from star hotels.
Bleach surmises that the then Congress government under P.V. Narasimha Rao wanted to destabilize the West Bengal Communist Government and that one or couple of politicians and bureaucrats from India and Britain were involved in the operation.
Kim Davy’s version.
Updates 1 July 2011.
The Danish Court rejected the plea for extraditing Kim Davy on the ground that he will be tortured in Indian prison.
Read my blog’ Skewed European Judicial System’.
CBI does not seem to be interested in getting Kim Davy extradited.
Well, you can not fault them considering the people likely to be involved.
The CBI Director no longer needs to be embarrassed as the CBI is now kept out of RTI Act.
“In a sensational allegation, Kim Davy, an accused in the 1995 Purulia arms drop case, has told a TV channel that the “Indian government had planned the arms drop in collaboration with British intelligence to destabilise the then Communist government” in West Bengal.
The objective “was to destabilize the government of West Bengal so that president’s rule could be declared and the CPI-M government disposed,” Davy said in an interview to the Times Now TV channel, a release issued by the channel said.
When asked why he was revealing all this now, Davy said that he “feared getting extradited to India and wanted to reveal the truth, and to set the record straight”.
“I am under the danger of being extradited to India as a terrorist, I don’t feel I am a terrorist, I have not done anything to harm anyone, on the contrary done things to protect people from communist terror, state sponsored terror and I kept my silence in all those years… 15 years, but now political forces in India are coming out to reach at me again,” he said.”
28 Apr 2011, April 17 in & in the wee hours of Dec 18 1995 a mysterious weapon consignment was dropped from the sky over Joupur Jhalda area under Purulia Disctrict of West Bengal. The consignment was discovered the next morning. Until now nobody knew what really happened. Today Kim Davy the seventh man and the leader of the operation reveals everything to TIMES NOW.
TIMES NOW: My first question to you Niels Christian Nielsen, alias Kim Davy, Why are you choosing to speak out now?
Davy: I am under the danger of being extradited to India as a terrorist, I don’t feel I am a terrorist, I have not done anything to harm anyone. On the contrary I have done things to protect people from Communist terror, State sponsored terror and I kept my silence in all those years, 15 years. But now political forces in India are coming out to reach at me again as they did 15 years ago and I feel its time to set the record straight.
TIMES NOW: So tell me and I will call you Kim Davy because you are known as Kim Davy across the country. Tell me who were these arms meant for? This Purulia Arms Drop, who were these arms meant for and for what purpose, who commissioned this arms drop?
Davy: The arms were meant for self-protection, it is my complete conviction that if I was tried in a Court of Law about the legality of dropping arms to protect people against State sponsored Communist terror, I would clear my name because it was legal defence against decades of murder, torture, rape by the CPIM in West Bengal. I have seen friends being butchered in front of my eyes for so many years and all I did was to work for the betterment of the rural people of West Bengal. For 15 years I worked my every waking hour to better the circumstances of the poorest of the poor in West Bengal, but the atrocities committed by the Communist simply became too much when too many friends were tortured to death so we had to defend ourselves against these attacks and that was the whole background of the Purulia Arms drop.
Davy substantiates Bleach’s story and adds some more .
He was met by not one man but many people.
They have informed him that they have contacts in the PMO.
He was helped to escape at the Mumbai Airport and was spirited away by an MP to Nepal through Bihar and some Bihar anti social elements were involved..
That MP is Pappu Yadav.
The entire operation was known to a Group of MPs who were dissatisfied by the way Purulia people were being exterminated by the West Bengal Government ,headed by Jyothi Basu and they wanted to arm the insurgent groups as had been done by the Government in Tripura earlier.
He was given a Schedule and was asked to meet the people in Karachi.
He was accompanied in the plane by MI 5 and R&AW officers.
He was guaranteed in 2002 by the Danish Government that he will not be extradited.
He surmises that the present dispensation in the central Government may want to settle scores on some ground with some one and that is why he is being extradited.
R&AW was informed by the MI5 and this has been posted in the Web page of British Secret Service.
He argues that he is not foolish enough to fly a plane from Pakistan into indain territory .that too with a cache of arms with out clearance from the Indian Government.
My questions.
Arms dropping is not necessary, (that too, to go to such great lengths,by the Central Government)to dismiss a State Government.
What exactly is the role of the British ,Pakistan and the Danish Governments?
If the Firm(MI5) is involved, their Cousins across the Atlantic,the Company(CIA)
must have been informed by MI5.(that is the level of cooperation they have towards Third World Countries)
How is it that MI5, which essentially looks after Internal Security gets entangled in Outside British soil?
Normally MI 6 would have handled it.
Why the sudden urge to declare facts by Peter Bleach, coinciding with the culmination of Decisive Polls in India?
Why do R&AW and Government of India are( as reported) about to issue a statement on this case?
Normally neither the Government not the intelligence agencies like R&AW and IB will react.
Again, why the the UK pressure to release Bleach and the Presidential pardon?
More complicated than a Noodle in Castor Oil.
Related:
Now 59 and still sleek and erect despite eight years in Calcutta’s jail, where he contracted TB and at one point nearly starved, he seems a throwback to an earlier sort of Englishman: James Bond, Raffles, John Le Carré’s Honourable Schoolboy. Kipling would have known the type. He worked as a private eye for years, but when spying went sour on him after one sleazy divorce case too many, he drifted into the arms trade. He specialised in small-scale orders – a couple of Polish helicopters or 50,000 yards of camouflage material – for governments in the developing world.
So when a German business acquaintance rang him one day and told him about a Danish contact who was looking for a supply of AK-47s, it promised to be nothing out of the ordinary. Bleach flew to Copenhagen to meet him – “You do want to get an eyeball of the people you are doing business with” – and present his quote for the guns.
But he was in for a surprise. Kalashnikovs are used by state armies all over the developing world, and the quote he had prepared covered their delivery to the bonded warehouse in Calcutta. But his customer, who introduced himself as Kim Davy, said he wanted the delivery made not to Calcutta, but to a remote spot near the western border of West Bengal called Purulia. He produced a map of India and put his finger on it.
For Bleach, there could be only one explanation: the arms were required not by a government but by a terrorist group. “I was a bit taken aback,” he says. He pointed out that it was illegal, and would therefore cost a lot more. “So he said, ‘Can you give us a fresh quote?’ and I said, ‘It’ll take a lot of doing, I’ll need some time to do it.’
“We shook hands on that, and I was driven back to the airport and flew home, and phoned the Ministry of Defence as soon as I touched down. And that,” he adds with a bitter laugh, “is where it all went wrong.”
Informing the authorities of what you are up to is second nature for a British arms dealer, Bleach explains. “In those days there was an organisation called the Defence Export Services Organisation (Deso), which had offices in London’s Soho Square, a division of the Ministry of Defence.” In a business as sensitive as arms dealing, Deso’s supervision “was a good system: you fed everything back to them, they weren’t bothered about what you were doing so long as it wasn’t exactly illegal, and they got a very good picture of who was buying what and what was going on around the world. So my only objective was to go back to the UK and telephone Deso and ask them what they wanted me to do – simple as that. Guess what? The British Government does occasionally support terrorist groups and things like that.
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