Attorney General KK Venugopal on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court of India to dismiss petitions seeking a CBI inquiry into the Rafale deal. Such an inquiry, he argued, would pose a grave threat to national security.
While the court adjourned the hearing till Thursday, March 14, Venugopal (88) put up a spirited but somewhat curious defence of the Rafale deal. By raising a preliminary objection and pointing out that documents published by The Hindu were stolen from the Ministry of Defence, he on the one hand authenticated the documents and on the other held out a veiled threat of the Government cracking down on petitioners and newspapers for compromising the security of the country.
For good measure, the Attorney General argued that the country needs the Rafale fighter planes (petitioners agree and have not prayed for the cancellation of the deal) to counter Pakistan’s apparently more formidable F-16 fighter jets.
It was an extraordinary defence even as Prashant Bhushan pointed out that his petitions in the 2G case as well as the case against the former CBI director Ranjit Sinha, were both based on documents supplied by whistleblowers. On both occasions the Supreme Court ordered an investigation.
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Statements made by the AG before the Supreme Court on Wednesday were as follows:
* FIR hasn't been registered so far into stealing of the documents since the FIR would have to also name the petitioners (Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and Prashant Bhushan)
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