New Delhi, Apr 05: The Government as well as the BJP today rubbished the Congress allegations of irregularities in the purchase of AK-47 assault rifles and accused it of resorting to blatant lies and stooping low in a ''conspiracy to malign India and security forces.'' BJP vice president Vijay Kumar Malhotra said at a press conference here while describing as ''blatant lies'' the charges leveled by Congress spokesman Kapil Sibal yesterday and defending the government's decision to go in for the deal.
Malhotra said the Congress has a ''vested interest'' in raising this issue because one of the All India Congress Committee general secretary's son is married to the daughter of the agent of the Russian company whose tender was rejected in the purchase. Malhotra, however, declined to name the Congress leader.
The government, while strongly defending its decision to purchase the AK-47 assault rifles from the Bulgarian company m/s Kintex, gave details leading to the finalisation of the deal and the purchase of the assault rifles. A home ministry spokesman said a high-level Indian technical team headed by inspector general of the CRPF, along with experts from the defence ministry, visited the production unit of the Bulgarian company, which is 100 per cent Bulgarian government venture, in January this year to inspect and test-fire the assault rifles before acceptance.
''The high-level technical team was fully satisfied with the production facilities in Bulgaria and also the quality of the rifles after putting them through firing tests. After this satisfactory inspection by the technical team, clearance was given for dispatch of the lot of 27,000 AK-47 rifles for the Ministry of Home Affairs,'' the spokesman said.
Bureau Report