Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal today claimed that the current CAG, Rajiv Mehrishi, was involved with the negotiations for the Rafale deal in 2015 when he was the finance secretary

New Delhi: In a fresh twist in the Rafale saga, the Congress party on Sunday made yet another charge against the NDA government and the Rafale jet deal negotiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with France. Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal today claimed that the current Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG), Rajiv Mehrishi, was involved with the negotiations for the Rafale deal in 2015 when he was the finance secretary.

Sibal claimed that Mehrishi’s presumed involvement in the Rafal deal negotiations presented a “conflict of interest”. The Congress leader alleged that Mehrishi, as the present CAG, was not in a position to probe the Rafale deal “due to his own involvement”.

Speaking at a press conference on Sunday, Sibal said that Mehrishi was appointed as the finance secretary from October 24, 2014, and held that position till August 30, 2015. PM Modi went to France during this time and signed the new Rafale deal after the previously negotiated deal for 126 fighter jets was cancelled. “Rafale deal was signed at a time when Mehrishi would have been involved in the negotiations. Now when the CAG is tasked with probing the deal, how can he probe this case?”

The CAG is likely to submit to the President the crucial report of its audit of the controversial Rafale fighter jet deal on Monday, sources told the Hindustan Times. The report on Rafale jet would be a part of the CAG's report on the major procurement deals signed by the government in the last few years.

"Report is ready to be submitted to the President. A copy of the report will be submitted to the government as well. The President will forward the report to the presiding officers – speaker of Lok Sabha and chairman of Rajya Sabha – who will lay it in the Parliament," a source was quoted as saying by the daily.

As per reports, the CAG held the "exit conference" - the last round of consultation between the auditors and the government - last week. According to the daily, the CAG report could be tabled in the Parliament on Wednesday, which is the last day of the last session of the 16th Lok Sabha before the upcoming general elections.

Notably, it was the Congress that had urged the CAG to finish the audit of the Rafale deal sooner. The last few months have seen the Opposition, especially the Congress, up the ante of its attacks against the Modi government over the Rafale matter.

The Opposition has claimed that the government had negotiated the deal at a higher price than the one negotiated by the UPA government and that Anil Ambani's Reliance Defence was favoured by the government as the offset partner for Dassault Rafale, as opposed to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL). The BJP government has denied all the charges.