Clearing the air, he added that what he meant in his submission was that the petitioners in the application used “photocopies of the original” papers which were deemed secret by the government. (File photo)With a political row erupting over his claim that documents pertaining to the controversial Rafale aircraft deal were stolen from the Defence Ministry, Attorney General K K Venugopal on Friday altered his stand saying that “the statement that files have been stolen is wholly incorrect”.
“I am told that the opposition has alleged what was argued (in SC) was that files had been stolen from the Defence Ministry. This is wholly incorrect. The statement that files have been stolen is wholly incorrect,” Venugopal was quoted as saying by PTI. He said that what he meant in his submission was that the petitioners in the application used “photocopies of the original” papers, which were deemed secret by the government.
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On Wednesday, the government threatened to invoke the Official Secrets Act and initiate “criminal action” against two publications which ran reports on the basis of these documents, and a lawyer. Venugopal, who made this submission before a three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, initially did not name the publications but later said “documents in the possession of The Hindu and ANI are stolen documents”.
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The Congress revived its attack on the Narendra Modi led-government with party president Rahul Gandhi seeking a criminal investigation into the matter.
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Venugopal had said the application filed by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, seeking a review from the court of its verdict dismissing plea for a probe against the Rafale deal, had annexed three documents which were photocopies of the original.
The petitioners have sought a review of the December 14, 2018 order of the Supreme Court which dismissed all PILs seeking a probe into alleged irregularities in India’s Rafale deal with France. They have also sought perjury charges, saying the Centre suppressed crucial facts when the Supreme Court decided to dismiss the PILs.
On February 8, a report in The Hindu, citing a “Defence Ministry note” of November 2015, stated that the Ministry “raised strong objections to ‘parallel negotiations’ conducted by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) with the French side” in the Rafale deal. ANI released the same note with additional notings. Venugopal said a probe into the theft was underway.
