Barak Missile Scandal

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The Barak Missile Scandal is a case of defence corruption relating to the purchase of Barak Missile Systems by India from Israel. The case is currently under investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation, and several people including the Samata Party ex-treasurer R.K. Jain have been arrested. Others named in the First Information Report include politicians George Fernandes and Jaya Jaitley, and arms dealer and ex-naval officer Suresh Nanda, who is the son of retired chief of naval staff S.M. Nanda.

The Barak missile system (jointly developed by Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and RAFAEL Armament Development Authority of Israel) employs vertically launched missiles to counter anti-ship sea-skimming missiles and attacks by aircraft. On October 23, 2000, contracts had been signed by the Indian government to procure seven Barak systems at a total cost $199.50 million and 200 missiles at a cost of $69.13 million. This was done despite objections raised by several groups, including members of the team that had originally visited Israel to observe the missile performance, and APJ Abdul Kalam, then heading the Defence Research Development Organization. Though some of the objections are of a procedural nature, the Navy Chief of Staff Sushil Kumar is currently under investigation as to why these objections were not considered^[1].

[edit] The Tehelka exposé

In 2001 a sting operation conducted by Tehelka, alleged that 15 defence deals made by the government had involved some sort of kickback and the Barak deal was one of them. The following excerpts from the Tehelka interview of Samata Party treasurer provides a good description of the Missile system, how it was opposed, and how the bribes worked. The Defence Minister at the time, George Fernandes, was from the Samata Party.

R.K. JAIN: Our help at times is a very big help. Like Barak was the case. Barak, you know is a system which is set on the ships, for Naval ships. And it is air-to-air...surface-to-surface missile. The file was going on for purchase of seven Barak, plus the ammunition from a company called Rafael in Israel. Abdul Kalam...the file went twice. I told you...DRDO, the head of the research and development wing is the scientific advisor to the defence, Abdul Kalam. Nowadays Atre is there. Abdul Kalam has retired. So, he wrote on the file that, "Look, we are developing our Prithvi or Trishul. Trishul missiles. I think, according to my...according to me, the Prithvi should be...or Trishul should be set up on our naval ships. There is no point of buying this imported system Barak."
TEHELKA: That is not missile. That is a system.
R.K. JAIN: Again, I just do my job. How do I do? The scientific advisor is also on the above of George Fernandes now. He (Suresh Nanda of Crown Corporation) gave me one crore rupees. "You keep it with you. Whether this order is being done or not done, I don't care. But I want to give it to the party. You give it and please try and help me. Money is not a problem." I went and paid.... I told Jaya Jaitley, "Look, so much of money he has already given to me now. If you accept it, that means we have to do something for the party. If you don't accept it, well, I'll go and give it back. But only accept it when we feel that we can do something. Otherwise, he won't say anything to me, but he won't feel good. He won't feel nice." She said, "Give me time for two days." She kept the money. After two days, she says, "I've spoken to the boss. Don't worry. He said he'll make everything fine."^[2].

[edit] Investigations

The NDA government set up a commission to investigate the matter. The UPA government, currently in power, has rejected the part-report by the commission and the whole matter is now being investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The CBI lodged an First Information Report (FIR) on October 9, 2006 and claims that George Fernandes the Indian defence minister at that time, and the Former Chief of the Indian Navy, Admiral Sushil Kumar were involved. The FIR notes that the Indian Defence Research & Development Organization had sought to block the import of the Barak system right until the end.

The FIR restates R.K. Jain's admission to Tehelka.com that 3 per cent of this cost went to Fernandes and Jaya Jaitley as commission, while he himself was given 0.5 per cent. These commissions were paid to them by Suresh Nanda, the middleman in the deal, according to the Tehelka tapes.^[1]

Due to the scandal which emanated when the allegations first surfaced, George Fernandes had to resign his post as the defence minister, although he was later reinstated. In early 2006, R.K. Jain was arrested in the case^[3].

Suresh Nanda along with his son, Sanjeev Nanda were arrested on the 9 March 2008 under section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and section 201 (committing offence to cause disappearing of evidence).^[4]