Documents Related To Rafale Deal Stolen From Defence Ministry, Government Tells SC
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government told The Supreme Court that documents concerning the Rafale fighter jet deal have been stolen from the defence ministry. Targeting The Hindu newspaper over its investigative stories on the purchase of 36 fighter jets from France amid opposition allegations of corruption.
Referring to documents cited by petitioners Prashant Bhushan, Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha which have been published by two media houses. Attorney General KK Venugopal said, “I am objecting as these secret documents are stolen from defence ministry, whether by present or past public servants.
In December the court provided Narendra Modi government with a clean chit over the Rafale Deal. Former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan have jointly filed a petition alleging that the Centre suppressed crucial facts in their submissions to the court.
The government will be purchasing 36 Rafale fighter jets from Dassault Aviation. The court declared in December that it will provide no monitoring over the defense deal and the pricing order, as a plea was recalled related to this order.
On February 26th The Supreme Court said “List the matters for hearing in open Court along with a plea for the initiation of perjury proceedings against officials allegedly for misleading the court and suppressing the information”.
Attorney general readily dismissed the point of reference by saying that those were based on stolen documents on which the investigation is still on.
The next hearing is on March 14th, till then we have to wait to witness any further development on this matter.
