Attempted break-in at Indian Rafale team’s office in Paris; Defence Ministry briefed

There was an attempt to break into the office of the Paris office of the Indian Air force (IAF) team overseeing the manufacture of 36 Rafales ordered by India, sources in Rafale-maker Dassault reported Wednesday.

“There was a break in into the Indian Air Force Rafale project management team office which is located in a suburb of Paris in France. No hard disk or document has been stolen. More details are being ascertained about the motive,” ANI quoted IAF sources as saying.

All the offices were broken into, say sources. E 20,000 may have been stolen from one of the other offices. The Indian Rafale team office is in the vicinity of French Dassault Aviation office blocks. The Rafale team reportedly sits in Saint Cloud suburb of Paris. The police are investigating and have not ruled out anything.

The Indian Project Management team in Paris is headed by a Group Captain-ranked officer of the IAF. The Defence Ministry, Indian Air Force or the French Embassy have not released any statement acknowledging the matter yet.

The Rafale fighter is a twin-engine Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) manufactured by French aerospace company Dassault Aviation.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi has slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the 36–jet deal saying that the latter cancelled the previous UPA government’s agreement and signed off on an overpriced deal only to facilitate an offset contract for industrialist Anil Ambani’s inexperienced defence company.

The deal is estimated to be about Rs 58,000 crore (about USD 8 billion).