Canadian accused of bribing Praful Patel, Hasan Gafoor, others

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Canadian Authorities allege that Indian-born Canadian citizen, Nazir Karigar, described to others how he funnelled a $250,000 bribe to Praful Patel, IndiaÃÔ Minister of Heavy Industries and a former minister of aviation. The case against Mr. Karigar has ensnared another household name in India Hasan Gafoor, a former Mumbai police commissioner who oversaw the force during the terrorist attacks on his city in 2008. Mr. Gafoor conspired with Mr. Karigar to rig a contract worth $100-million (U.S.), the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. When contacted, Mr. Patel and Mr. Gafoor said they have no knowledge of the alleged scheme and that The Globe and MailÃÔ inquiries were the first they had heard about the allegations. In an interview at his office in New Delhi, Mr. Patel said he was baffled that Canadian authorities could implicate him in an alleged bribery scheme that he had never heard of. Å©ow can my name be drawn into something that is absolutely false? IÃÎ in public life. I cannot be dragged into such issues and these allegations which are absolutely baseless and false, said Mr. Patel, who repeatedly added that he will explore Ã…Ãegal options about how to respond. In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh published on an Indian media website, Mr. Patel denied the bribery allegations, calling them "baseless and false." WHERE IT ALL BEGAN Few details about the case are available to the public. In 2010, the Mounties announced they had charged Mr. Karigar, but declined to say whom he had allegedly bribed, what contract he was seeking, or for whom he was working. A planned press conference about the charge was abruptly cancelled the morning it was scheduled to take place. A search warrant related to the case has been sealed by court order. Interviews with a number of sources close to the investigation, as well as a review of documents filed in two legal proceedings in the United States, have revealed that the charge relates to Mr. Karigar's work on behalf of CryptoMetrics, a high-tech security company that was pursuing a $100-million contract with Air India for a facial-recognition security system. The privately owned company, which had offices in the New York area, Ottawa and Mumbai until it became the focus of two criminal investigations, declared bankruptcy shortly after Mr. Karigar was charged. Authorities allege that as head of the companyÃÔ Indian operations, Mr. Karigar spoke openly to others about channelling a bribe to Mr. Patel through a political ally in order to influence approval of the contract. They also contend that he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to two Air India officials and conspired with Mr. Gafoor, a childhood friend of Mr. KarigarÃÔ who was then director of security for Air India, in an unsuccessful bid to ensure CryptoMetrics was awarded the lucrative deal. In a telephone interview, Mr. Gafoor denied helping Mr. Karigar rig the contract in favour of CryptoMetrics, saying that another department at Air India was responsible for awarding such contracts. He said he hadn't spoken to Mr. Karigar in two or three years, and was unaware that he had been implicated in a criminal conspiracy with his friend. Å®y God, he said, when told of the corruption allegations. He repeatedly pointed out that he had left Air India when the contract was still up for grabs, and that the airline ultimately abandoned its plans for such a system. ŤryptoMetrics didnÃÕ get it, nor did anything come of it, he said. Read More Video

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Here is Mr.Patel's denial - http://www.livemint.com/2012/02/02220319/Patel-denies-bribery-allegatio.html?h=B