Rafale deal: Rahul's claims preposterous, says Reliance

Anil Ambani's Reliance group on Friday dismissed as “factually incorrect” and “preposterous” the claims made by Congress president Rahul Gandhi that investment from Dassault was used to buy land at Nagpur and that it was the clincher for it to win the offset contract in the Rafale deal.

“The Congress Party has today once again resorted to blatant lies and distorted facts to mount an unwarranted campaign of calumny and falsehoods against the Reliance Group and its chairman Anil Ambani personally,” a Reliance Infrastructure Ltd spokesperson said in a statement.

He rejected any linkages between Dassault's investments in Reliance Airport Developers Limited (RADL) and the Rafale contract between the government of India and France.

Earlier, Rahul had claimed that Dassault Aviation had paid Rs 284 crore to Reliance Defence as the “first installment of kickbacks” to buy land at Nagpur.

“The Congress party has falsely alleged that the funds invested in RADL have been used for purchase of land at Mihan, Nagpur for the Dassault-Reliance 49:51 JV,” the Reliance Infra statement said.

The statement said that Dassault made investments in RADL— which operates five airports in Maharashtra for the last nine years— in September 2017 in a “transparent manner” and in “full compliance of applicable laws”.

It said that the land for the Dassault Reliance joint venture was allotted in January 2016 at Mihan in Nagpur and all payments for it were made between August 2015 and July 2017.

“To allege that Dassault investment in RADL was used to pay for this land is factually incorrect and preposterous,” the statement said.

The Reliance spokesperson also said that the Congress party's “consistent allegation” that Anil Ambani had received contracts worth Rs 30,000 crore was a “blatant attempt to mislead the public for their own political gain and is a concoction of lies”.