New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has cleared Union Minister Praful Patel of allegations that he took a kickback when he was Civil Aviation Minister from a Canadian businessman for an Air India contract for supply of security equipment.
In a letter to Patel, the Prime Minister is understood to have told him that the External Affairs Ministry has been asked to convey to Canada that the contract was never executed as it was not found to be cost-effective.
Patel had termed as "baseless and preposterous" the allegations by Indian-born Canadian Nazir Karigar that a close associate of the minister was paid USD 2.50 lakh for getting the contract for a computerised passenger face recognition biometrics system for Air India approved.
Following this, Patel had written to the Prime Minister urging him to direct Air India to forward all relevant information and documents of the tender to PMO or to any agency nominated by him for a probe.
Patel had wanted that the "factual position" be conveyed to the authorities in Canada in order to avoid any embarrassment to the government or to him personally.
15/02/12 PTI/ZeeNews
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