New Delhi, Feb 3 (IANS) Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh Friday ruled out a probe into the allegations of graft against Praful Patel, who once held the portfolio, even as the man in the eye of the storm has strongly denied any wrong-doing.
Canadian daily Globe and Mail reported Wednesday that the country’s justice department was going to prosecute an Indian-born businessman Nazir Karigar for bribing some Indian officials to secure a $100 million order for facial-recognition system from Air India.
The order pertained to 2006 when Patel was civil aviation minister, which functions out of Rajiv Gandhi Bhavan in the national capital.
Patel, now the minister for heavy industries and public enterprises, has also written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh — a copy of which is with IANS — requesting a perusal of records with Air India to clear his name.
Even Ajit Singh, his successor in the ministry once removed, defended him.
“No! Air India will not have its own investigation into the issue. Anyone can write anything in a newspaper. But for an investigation, there should be some substantial reason,” Ajit Singh told reporters here Friday.
“He (Patel) has said that he has not done anything. I have no further information on the issue. He has spoken to the prime minister and is ready for any investigation,” he said referring to the requestm Patel made to the Prime Minister’s Office.
The former civil aviation minister had urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convey the “factual position” on the case to the Canadian authorities to avoid an embarrassment to the Indian government and him personally.
“In the circumstances, I earnestly request you that the factual position be conveyed to authorities in Canada in order to avoid any embarrassment to the government of India and to me personally,” the two-page letter said.
He said procurement tenders were routinely issued by Air India in the normal course of their business and at no stage these were dealt with or even sent to the ministry of civil aviation, much less to the minister for approval or otherwise.
Patel also went on to add that the said tender, in which he was accused of having taken a bribe, was scrapped at the very inception and no follow-up action was taken in that respect since then.
The Canadian newspaper report alleged that Patel — who has since strongly refuted the charges — had received a bribe in conjunction with former Mumbai police commissioner Hasan Ghafoor, who was security director at Air India that time.
Ghafoor was said to have acted as a facilitator for his childhood friend Karigar.
