NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday said it had registered a case against the former Defence Minister, George Fernandes, the former Samata Party president, Jaya Jaitly, and the former Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sushil Kumar, in connection with alleged irregularities in a defence contract.

It was for procuring seven Barak anti-missile (AMD) systems and 200 missiles from Israel Aircraft Industries Limited (IAI). The deal was estimated to be around Rs. 1,125 crore.

The CBI said: "The then president of a political party, who functioned from the residence of the then Defence Minister, was allegedly paid Rs. 2 crore by the middleman/agent, while the then national treasurer of the said party was given separate gratifications to the tune of several lakhs of rupees."

The Samata Party's former national treasurer, R.K. Jain, was also named in the FIR filed by the CBI on Monday.

CBI spokesperson G. Mohanty said at a press meet that defence deals, concluded between August 2004 and December 2005, and some cases as a fallout of the Tehelka tapes revelations posed a "very complex" challenge of gathering evidence.

The Barak deal was signed despite objections from the DRDO that Trishul was good enough for the Navy.

evidence indicated receipt of remittances from abroad from the firm or other firms connected with it into the accounts of the middlemen, Mr. Mohanty said.

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