An inquiry commission has exonerated Defence Minister George Fernandes from corruption charges in a bribes-for-arms scandal which surfaced three years ago, media reports said Wednesday.
The first part of a report by the Justice Phukan Commission, dealing with whether proper procedures were followed in defence transactions, was submitted to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee Wednesday, television networks reported.
The Press Trust of India said the report had exonerated Fernandes.
"No impropriety was committed by Fernandes in any of the 15 defence deals examined by the commission," sources in the commission told PTI.
The defence deals were linked to the purchases of Sukhoi fighter jets, Barak missiles, T-90 tanks, handheld thermal imagers, light weight binoculars, tank navigation systems, simulators and Karl Gustav rockets, PTI said.
News website Tehelka in 2001 had conducted a sting operation when journalists posing as arms dealers showed senior defence officials allegedly taking bribes on camera.
The exposure shook the government and led to the resignation of Fernandes, BJP party chief Bangaru Laxman and several other senior bureaucrats and army officers. Fernandes was re-appointed as defence minister soon after by Vajpayee.
Reacting to the reports of his exoneration, the minister Wednesday described the sting operation as a "motivated rubbish".
He voiced confidence that political forces that backed the "malicious campaign" would be exposed, saying: "These people don't want to face the truth."
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