New Delhi: Air Chief S Krishnaswamy today (Oct 25, 2004) said no "middlemen or agents" were involved when India had signed the deal for purchase of 10 additional Mirage 2000 H fighters with French Company Dassault in September 2000.

"Clearly there were no middlemen or agents involved. That is a fact," he said when asked to comment on media reports of a Panamanian company acting as a middleman in the deal.

The reports quoted a French court has having upheld that the Panamanian company had worked to swing the deal in favour of the French arms major Dassault.

Asked about the reports, the Air Chief, emerging after the IAF Commanders conference at Air Headquarters in New Delhi said, "What we are told now is in 1996 there was a company called Keyser that had an understanding with the French manufacturers for commercial survey of India and of the region."

After the Bofors kickbacks controversy, the Government had banned middlemen in all Defence deals and this principle was upheld when the authorities recently announced setting up of a new top-level Procurement Board for Defence purchases.