Soon after filing his nomination papers for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, Congress president Rahul Gandhi thanked the Supreme Court for rejecting the Centre’s objections over the admissibility of the “leaked” documents cited by petitions seeking a review of the Rafale verdict of December 2018.

Addressing mediapersons in Amethi, he said, “The Prime minister has been claiming that the Supreme Court had given him a clean chit on the Rafale deal. The Supreme Court has clarified and has begun an investigation into the Rafale deal.”

“The Supreme Court has accepted that there was corruption in Rafale and that the Prime Minister has given Rs 30,000 crore to Anil Ambani,” Rahul Gandhi said.

“If the PM debates the issue with me, he will not be able to see eye-to-eye with the people of the country,” Gandhi said.

“I thank the Supreme Court. Supreme Court has done justice today,” Rahul Gandhi said.

Earlier in the day, the government had submitted that the plea for review of the Rafale verdict was not maintainable as it was based on documents that were covered under the Official Secrets Act.

The Supreme Court, while dismissing the government’s objection, allowed the use of the documents in admitting the review petition filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, and lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan.

In its hearing on Wednesday, the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said that it would consider the papers while examining the petition.

On December 14, the Supreme Court had rejected a petition seeking an independent probe into the Rafale deal.

First Published: Apr 10, 2019 13:58 IST