JOIN USUnion Minister Praful Patel today found himself at the centre of pay-off allegations concerning a $100 million Air India contract during his tenure as Civil Aviation Minister, but he rubbished the charges as "baseless and preposterous".
A leading Canadian newspaper, Globe and the Mail, reported that an Indian-born Canadian citizen, Nazir Karigar, is to be prosecuted on charges of paying off Patel in a case in which a former Mumbai police chief also figures.Karigar is accused of paying bribes and being involved in a bid-rigging scheme in 2007 in an unsuccessful attempt to win the contract from Air India for computerised passenger face recognition biometrics system.
The airline ultimately abandoned the plans for such a system. According to the newspaper, investigators allege that in early 2007, Karigar met Patel, now Minister for Heavy Industries, along with one of his political allies Laxman Dhoble. Later, Karigar described to others, including one cooperating witness from CryptoMetrics, the company bidding for the contract, how he allegedly gave $250,000 to Dhoble “to pass on to Mr Patel so the Minister could use his influence to make the project happen,” the report said.