New Delhi: A Congress delegation has met Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India Rajiv Mehrishi for the second time in a fortnight. The Congress termed it as new facts and reiterated its demand for a forensic audit of the Rs 60,150 crore Rafale deal.

“We have brought to the CAG’s attention additional developments and revelations since the last time we met,” Congress leader Anand Sharma told reporters after the meeting.

“More details will come and each and every detail and document related to the Rafale deal must go through the CAG’s forensic audit before a report is submitted to Parliament,” he said.

Apart from Sharma, the delegation comprised senior leaders Ahmed Patel, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Jairam Ramesh, RPN Singh and Vivek Tankha.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s decision to enter an $8.7 billion government-to-government deal with France to buy 36 Rafale warplanes made by Dassault was announced in April 2015, with an agreement signed a little over a year later. This replaced the previous United Progressive Alliance regime’s decision to buy 126 Rafale aircraft, 108 of which were to be made in India by the state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL).

The deal has become controversial with the Opposition, led by the Congress, claiming that the price at which India is buying Rafale aircraft now is Rs 1,670 crore for each, three times the ₹526 crore, the initial bid by the company when the UPA was trying to buy the aircraft. It has also claimed the previous deal included a technology transfer agreement with HAL.

The NDA has not disclosed details of the price, but the UPA deal, struck in 2012, was not a viable one, former defence minister Manohar Parrikar has previously said, implying that it would have never been closed and that, therefore, any comparison is moot. Indeed, the UPA was not able to close the deal until 2014, largely over discussions related to pricing of items not included in the initial bid.