Prashant Bhushan, eminent lawyer activist, here on Saturday said he had moved Supreme Court, seeking prosecution of central government functionaries, who had furnished false information about Rafale deal to the apex court.

Mr. Bhushan and former ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha are petitioners in the fresh applications filed before Supreme Court. Earlier, the three renowned public figures had filed a review petition against Supreme Court verdict on Rafale in January last.

“The centre has misled the Supreme Court by furnishing concocted facts. The information provided in sealed cover has been found to be untrue. It stated that government was in negotiation with Anil Ambani in 2012, but actually talks were held with other Ambani – Mukesh Ambani. Anil Ambani had nothing to do anything with negotiations in 2012,” said Mr. Bhushan addressing a press conference here.

“The government had said price negotiation was done by price negotiating team. The recent expose, however, revealed that Prime Minister’s Office was involved in the negotiation. It was also furnished that the government was able to secure best price for fighter jet. Now, what emerges now is that the assertion was baseless,” he said.

“Now, we have pleaded Supreme Court to find out the government officer who had furnished false information and he or she should be prosecuted under forgery charges. Incidentally Attorney General had submitted the information in a sealed cover,” said the activist lawyer.

“The deal was not a mere case of corruption. The decision has broken backbone of Indian Air Force. The IAF had sought seven to eight squadrons consisting of 126 fighter planes. The government, however, brought it down to 36. It was meant to benefit industrialist Anil Ambani. The government has tinkered with the national security,” alleged Mr. Bhushan.

“The fresh application has been filed in wake of tabling of CAG report. The information submitted to Supreme Court says the price negotiating team was negotiating the price for fighter jet. But now it has come to light that PMO and security advisor Ajit Doval were involved in price negotiation,” he pointed out.

Stating that the set of information was full of discrepancies, the activist said, “the sovereign guarantee and bank guarantee clauses have been taken out. The escrow account has been done away with. Moreover, the integrity clause has been waived. All these information have been suppressed.”

“The opinion of three domain experts was not taken into account. They had said the benchmark price of the Rafale fighter plane cannot be arbitrarily hiked from Euro 5 bn to Euro 8 bn which is 60% increase. The government’s claim of the present deal of being cheaper is based wrong assumption. In fact, the present deal is costlier than earlier one. The government has bypassed the tender route. The tender was issued for 126 planes, but not for 36 Rafale jets,” he alleged.