Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier has refused all the allegations levelled by Congress president Rahul Gandhi in links with the Rafale fighter jets deal between India and France. In an interview with the leading news agency ANI, Trappier answered to a question on the allegations by the grand old Congress party saying that “I don’t lie”.

The Dassault Aviation CEO noted that “I don’t lie. The truth I declared earlier and the statements I made are true. I don’t have a reputation of lying. In my position as CEO, you don’t lie.”

Trappier further remembered the alliance of the French company with the Congress party in the past, saying that the first deal with India was hit in 1953, under the regime of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

He stated, “We have a long experience with the Congress party. Our first deal was with India in 1953 with Nehru and other prime ministers. We have been working with India. We are not working for any party. We are supplying strategic products like fighters to the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian government. That is what is most important.”

On the concern of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Defense being preferred as the counteract associate, the Dassault Aviation CEO stated that the money being invested was not going straight to Reliance directly but in a joint business enterprise.

The statement  by the French firm’s CEO comes almost 10 days after Congress scion Rahul Gandhi laid blame on the company of paying “first trench of kickbacks of Rs 284 crore” to Anil Ambani.