NEW DELHI: Even as CBI investigates kickbacks in the original Rs 1,160-crore Israeli Barak anti-missile defence system contract, dark clouds seem to be gathering over yet another major arms deal signed with Israel in March 2004.
This time, a reputed Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, has hinted at commissions being paid to an "agent" in the $1.1-billion 'Phalcon' AWACS (airborne warning and control systems) signed with Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI) in March 2004.
On being contacted by TOI on Thursday, top Indian defence ministry and IAF officials said they had "no idea" about the new allegations. "The fact is that we are getting cutting-edge defence technology from Israel, which is no doubt expensive," said an official.
"The Barak was crucial to the needs of our Navy since our indigenous Trishul system had failed. Similarly, IAF desperately requires the Phalcons. The security needs of the country should not be hit by such allegations, which could be completely baseless," he added.
IAI was also involved in the original Barak contract signed by the previous NDA regime in October 2000.
The UPA government, however, did not blacklist the firm since it's engaged in several ongoing crucial defence projects with India, which include the Rs 10,000-crore endeavour to develop an advanced Barak medium-range surface-to-air missile system.
In the Phalcon project, three Phalcon early-warning radars are being mounted on Russian heavy-lift IL-76 military aircraft under a tripartite agreement among India, Israel and Russia.
There has been quite a bit of delay in the project, which is supposed to give IAF "potent eyes in the sky" to detect hostile missiles and aircraft much before ground-based sensors.
The first of the three Phalcon AWACS is now slated to arrive in India only towards August-September this year, instead of the earlier delivery date in November 2007.
Haaretz on Thursday reported in detail about the deep links between the "agent", whose name is under "a gag order", and Moshe Keret, who was IAI chief for 20 years till 2005.
The newspaper says the agent, who was handling the marketing of IAI in Russia since the early 1990s, was instrumental in clinching a Phalcon deal with China in 1996-97. Under the exorbitant deal, in which the agent was "paid several million dollars", China was to get a Russian aircraft mounted with the Phalcon radar.
"The deal with China was ultimately scuttled under pressure from the US, and China received $375 million in compensation. But Israel and IAI found a new customer in the Phalcon deal, India, at four times the price, a deal for about $1.1 billion," says the newspaper.
"The India deal is still in the implementation phase, but the agent has received an advance of millions of dollars with many more millions promised," it adds.
Incidentally, though Keret and the agent were both arrested in September 2005, the Israeli attorney general Menachem Mazuz wanted to close the case a few months ago due to lack of clinching legal evidence.
But the Israeli justice ministry has put the decision on hold after an appeal by Ometz, an Israeli non-profit citizens for proper administration, judicial and social justice organisation, says the newspaper.
After Barak, Phalcon deal under cloud-India-The Times of India
