Heavy Industries Minister and former Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel has been named in a Canadian newspaper report as an intended beneficiary of a bribe supposed to have been given by an Indo-Canadian businessman in an attempt to obtain an aborted contract for supplies to Air India.
Canada’s The Globe and Mail newspaper reported this morning that Canadian authorities were “planning to prosecute” one Nazir Karigar, an India-born Canadian citizen, for alleged violation of Foreign Public Officials Act — a relatively new law that forbids Canadian citizens from paying bribes abroad. The law applies to bribes as well as “attempted payments”.
The paper claimed that the 64-year-old Karigar was the India representative of CryptoMetrics, a Canada-based high-tech security company aiming to secure a “$100-million contract” to supply facial-recognition security system to Air India — a contract that never fructified.
According to the newspaper, Canadian authorities allege that Karigar, who was born in Solapur in Maharashtra, met Patel in “early 2007” along with NCP leader Laxman Dhoble who now happens to be a minister in the Maharashtra government. “Later, Mr Karigar described to others...how he gave $250,000 to Mr Dhoble to pass on to Mr Patel so the minister would use his influence to make the project happen,” the report says.
02/02/12 Indian Express
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