‘This is handiwork of that lady’

NEW DELHI: Accusing Congress chief Sonia Gandhi of being behind the filing of a corruption case against him in the Barak missile deal, former Defence Minister George Fernandes today denied the allegations against him and suggested the charge should be first levelled against President A P J Abdul Kalam.

“This is the handiwork of that lady,” Fernandes said referring to Gandhi shortly after the CBI announced filing of an FIR against him, his party leader Jaya Jaitley and former navy chief Admiral Sushil Kumar in connection with the defence deal. Fernandes 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 advise of the present President and the then Advisor to the Prime Minister A P J Abdul Kalam. “On his (Kalam’s) clearance it was done. He said it was needed. He had put his hand into it,” a combative Fernandes told reporters at his residence here.

“If they have to make any charge against me, then they should charge the President as well as he first called for it (the missile system), asked for it before I went into the government,” he said.

The then Scientific Adviser to Defence Minister said the Barak missile system was needed and that is how it came. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have come, Fernandes added.

“There cannot be charge against me alone,” he said.