NCP chief Sharad Pawar today came to the defence of beleaguered party colleague and fellow Union Minister Praful Patel, at the centre of bribery allegations in a $100 million Air India contract, saying there was no evidence to link him to the scandal.
"There is no evidence to prove the Canadian newspaper report about bribery allegations against Patel," Pawar told reporters.
A leading Canadian newspaper, Globe and the Mail had yesterday reported that an Indian-born Canadian citizen, Nazir Karigar, was to be prosecuted on charges of paying off union Heavy Industries Minister Patel in a bid to secure the contract during his tenure as civil aviation minister.
Karigar was accused of paying bribes and being involved in a bid-rigging scheme in 2007 in an unsuccessful attempt to win the AI contract for passenger face recognition biometrics system. The national carrier had later abandoned the plan to have such a system.
Pawar said he had also seen the letter Patel has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh denying the charge.
"I have seen the letter he (Patel) has written to the Prime Minister about the case. The decision (to have the system) was never taken," Pawar said.
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