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Paris: President Emmanuel Macron of France was in India last week for the AI Summit but also to close a lucrative sale. Prior to his arrival, the Indian establishment sought to drum up some excitement by announcing that the Indian Air Force would soon be acquiring 114 more French-made Rafale combat aircraft. What Indians don’t know – and the Narendra Modi government certainly won’t tell them – is that a Paris-based prosecutor, Virginie Tilmont, is still continuing her probe into alleged corruption in the earlier sale of 36 such planes, finalised via an MoU with India in January 2016.

A source familiar with the National Financial Prosecutor’s (PNF’s) office disclosed to this reporter that police investigators assigned to it had extensively interrogated Julie Gayet, wife of former French president François Hollande.

The source shared excerpts of the minutes of Gayet’s questioning spread over three days, which sought to probe whether Indian businessman, Anil Ambani – who benefitted from an offset contract from the deal between Modi and Hollande – attempted to get into the latter’s good books via Gayet. Hollande’s then partner, now wife, denied this.

The fact that Anil Ambani’s firm had helped fund one of Gayet’s films was first reported by Sushant Singh in the Indian Express on August 31, 2018. ‘Rafale talks were on when Reliance Entertainment helped produce film for François Hollande’s partner,’ the newspaper’s headline had said. Days after this report appeared, the French media platform Mediapart spoke to Hollande about a possible conflict of interest. This is when Hollande dropped a bombshell of his own: that it was the Modi government which had insisted Anil Ambani be designated Dassault’s offset partner for the deal: “We didn’t have any say in this matter,” Hollande told Mediapart. “It is the Indian government which had proposed this service group, and Dassault who negotiated with Ambani. We didn’t have the choice, we took the interlocutor who was given to us. That’s why, also, this group had no reason to give me any grace [favour] of any sort. I could not even imagine that there was any link with Julie Gayet’s film.”

Police from French financial prosecutor’s office question Gayet

Towards the end of 2024, Pascal Fontenille, divisional commander, assisted by Sophie Paesbrugghe, a captain, both on deputation to the judicial police force at the disposal of the prosecutor’s office, carried out what the French politely call an ‘audition’.

It began by Gayet being asked about her occupation. She replied, ‘I work as an actress, producer and director (in) film, theatre and audio-visual (productions).’ She further stated, ‘I am unknown to the police, gendarmerie and the justice services,’ – meaning she has no criminal record. She was given a choice between making a declaration or answering questions. She preferred the latter.

File photo of Julie Gayet. Wikimedia.

In due course, the interrogators asked how Ambani came to fund a film in which Gayet was involved.

The interrogation was in French. Here are machine-translated extracts:

Question: Explain to us how the Indian company RELIANCE BIG ENTERTAINMENT came to contribute Euro1.65 million to the film’s budget? [This was the movie called Tout La-Haut, or All the Top)

Answer: I think it was VISVIRES (a co-producer) who made the connection with RELIANCE… I think RELIANCE had the idea of having Kev Adam (a French filmstar) make an Indian film in BOLLYWOOD. Furthermore, RELIANCE had just bought DREAM WORKS (in the United States)… Given the international nature of the film, there was an opportunity for RELIANCE to sell domestically (in India)… So it was Elisa (SOUSSAN, who was, according to Gayet, putting the financing together) via David BARROT of MY FAMILY (a previous production), who informed me that RELIANCE could provide financing through VISVIRES.

Q: Are you aware of the ties between VISVIRES CAPITAL FRANCE and Indian businessman Ravi VISWANATHAN?

A: Well, I don’t know the ties at all, but I thought that in VISVIRES, there was a bit of Ravi’s name in the company name (VIS). I must have gotten this information either from Mr Viswanathan himself or from someone at MY FAMILY.  The first time I heard about Mr Viswanathan was through an email from Elisa and David Barrot, asking me to meet with the partner Reliance. In this email, there was a transfer or copy of a previous exchange between Viswanathan and Elisa and David Barrot, which announced that Anil Ambani was coming to Paris and he wanted to meet with MY FAMILY and ROUGE INTERNATIONAL (Gayet’s company)… As for the meeting between Anil Ambani, Elisa, David (I think) and me, I can’t give you a date. I don’t remember the date, but it was after the deal had been approved and after Reliance was participating in the financing even though the contract hadn’t been finalised. For me, attending this meeting was just a polite presence and at the request of Elisa and David. This meeting took place at the Bristol (Hotel).

Q: You answered our last question… by indicating that during the dinner you hosted in your private apartments [at the Elysee Palace] with Anil Ambani, President François Hollande did not recognise him. However, could he have been unaware that Mr Anil Ambani was going to finance your film?

A: Yes, he could have been unaware, and I would like to point out that we did not discuss the film’s financing during the meal.

Q: How do you explain that a sitting President of the Republic, a President whose close ties to Mr Michel Sapin (minister of the economy) are well known, and who would promulgate the Sapin II law (a comprehensive anti-corruption Act) during his term, would agree to dine in his private apartments with an individual who had not been vetted by the Elysee Palace staff, a individual whom you tell us he did not recognise?

A: Well, I cannot speak for him. Private dinners were declared to the President’s office so they could be included in his agenda. This bypassed protocol and advisers. I should point out that I sometimes hosted dinners in the private apartments [at Elysee] without giving the names of my guests to protocol or anyone at the Elysee Palace. This dinner took place at the Elysee, but it could have been held at my home in the 11th arrondissement. I remind you that I suggested this dinner because Mr Ambani had mentioned this private trip for his son.

Q: Aside from the fact that the lack of background checks on Mr. Ambani could have constituted a significant security breach, can you confirm that this wasn’t done by the Élysée Palace staff?

Q: The following contacts were found on your mobile phone during the search on September 6, 2023 (screenshots attached to........

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