More trouble for UPA; Praful bribed, claims Indo-Canadian

New Delhi, Feb 3: An Indian-born Canadian has claimed that Union Minister Praful Patel was paid a bribe of $ 250,000 by him in 2007.

According to Nazir Karigar, the bribe was paid by him to help Crypto Metric, a Canadian firm to bag a deal of $100-million with Air India for facial-recognition security system. The deal was never fruitful though.

Praful Patel, who was the Civil Aviation Minister then, has said, "How can my name be drawn into something that is absolutely false? I'm in public life. I cannot be dragged into such issues and these allegations, which are absolutely baseless and false."

He also wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking intervention in the matter.

"Air India records would demonstrate that the allegations are baseless and false. There was no interference from the Ministry of Civil Aviation or me in this matter. This tender has been scrapped in the intial stage only. I request that the factual position should be conveyed to the Canadian authority," said Patel.

According to the Royal Canadian police, Nazir Karigar along with Hasan Gafoor, former Mumbai Police Commissioner conspired together. Gafor was then the director of security for Air India airlines. While Karigar accepted the fact that he contacted him, Gafoor refuted all the charges levelled against him.

The case came out in open in 2007 when Karigar was sued by Crypto Metrics after the latter failed to bag a deal with Air India.

The police received a tip off from a Canadian diplomat about the issue and Karigar himself brought the truth out when his ties with Crypto Metrics soured.

OneIndia News