Responding to charges of impropriety levelled against it by former Union ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha, and lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan, Reliance Defence on Wednesday said the company denied it had bagged a ₹30,000 crore deal as part of the Rafale contract.

The company said it had not received any contract from the Defence Ministry till date, related to the 36 Rafale aircraft. “This is absolutely unfounded and incorrect,” it said in a statement.

It also claimed that State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) or any other agency could not produce the Rafales in India as they are to be bought in “fly-away” condition from France, and are not to be made in India.

It also claimed that the Ministry of Defence had no role in the selection of Indian partners by the foreign vendors such as Rafale-maker Dassault Aviation.

“No company in India, except HAL, has the experience of making fighter aircraft. If we were to follow the above logic, would that mean that we will never create any new capability beyond what exists and will continue to import more than 70 per cent of our defence hardware?” it asked.

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