George Fernandes says graft allegations politically motivated

Former Defence Minister George Fernandes on Wednesday accused the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of filing charges of corruption against him at the behest of its political masters.

Fernandes said that he was framed in the Barak missile scam case at the behest of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

"This is the handiwork of all those who spread lies...and Sonia Gandhi tops the list. But I don't care," he said.

Congress, however, refuted Fernandes's allegations that Gandhi was behind the registration of the FIR.

"These attacks are wild, false, unsubstantiated, motivated and highly vicious. If charges have been made, if an FIR has been filed against Mr. George Fernandes, he should face the proceedings with facts to defend himself instead of launching a vitriolic attack on Congress President," said Jayanti Natarajan, Congress spokesperson.

The deals involve 14 defence purchases of arms and wares for Indian operation in the limited war against Pakistan at Kargil.

The CBI said Fernandes and then Navy Chief, Admiral Sushil Kumar, were influenced by middlemen to push the deal, overruling objections by the state-run defence agency.

India and state-run Israel Aircraft Industries signed a 269 million dollar deal to supply the Indian navy with Barak missiles to protect its warships as part of New Delhi's efforts to modernise its army.

The deal was among 48 cases referred by the defence ministry to the CBI in 2004 and 2005 as it suspected irregularities in some of them and that commissions were paid to middlemen, CBI said in a statement.

The CBI also carried out countrywide raids on Tuesday in connection with the case.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which was in power when the alleged scam took place, said naming of Fernandes was just a case of political vendetta.

"Congress has been targeting George Fernandes for the past five years because he has been fighting the corruption by Congress for the past 40 years," said Prakash Jawadekar, BJP spokesperson.

However, Railway Minister Lalu Yadav defended Sonia Gandhi saying that pointing fingers at others after the scandal had been unearthed was baseless.

"Law will take its due course. FIR has been registered and people should not point fingers at others. There should be no prejudice. But saying that it has been done," he said.

Fernandes was hit by an arms scandal in 2001 when the Tahalaka website released video footage showing a string of officials apparently taking cash from journalists posing as arms dealers.

That scandal forced Fernandes to quit as minister but he returned to his post seven months later. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing. But the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government had rejected its findings. (ANI)

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