NEW DELHI: The former Defence Minister, George Fernandes, on Tuesday rejected allegations of irregularities and pay-offs in the purchase of the Israeli Barak missile system and maintained that he had nothing to do with corruption.

Mr. Fernandes accused Congress president Sonia Gandhi of being behind the filing of a corruption case by the CBI against him in the missile deal. The charge should first be levelled against President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, he said.

The decision to procure Barak missiles was taken much before he entered the Defence Ministry and he was only fulfilling the procurement needs of the Navy.

"Thereafter, the Navy insisted that they needed it. I had to take a decision. I took the advice of Mr. Kalam, then Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister Mr.Kalam said it was needed," Mr. Fernandes told reporters.

There could not be a charge against him alone. He was not afraid of going to jail if the CBI found any concrete evidence against him.

The Congress rejected the allegation of Mr. Fernandes that Ms. Gandhi was behind the registration of the case. "It is nonsense to say that Ms. Sonia Gandhi is behind this," party general secretary Janardhan Dwivedi said, adding that the Government agencies were doing their job and he did not want to comment on it.

The Bharatiya Janata Party said the Congress was practising the politics of vengeance. Rejecting charges of corruption in the Barak deal, party spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said the Phookan Commission, which had given Mr. Fernandes "a clean chit", had investigated the deal.

He also pointed out that just before the May 2004 Lok Sabha election, the Congress made a big noise about corruption in purchase of coffins for soldiers killed in the Kargil war.

But later that party was not able to pinpoint any wrongdoing.

Mr. Fernandes resigned from the Cabinet in the wake of the March 2001 Tehelka expose.

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