ISLAMABAD – The Modi government Wednesday told the Indian Supreme Court thatthe documents related to Rafale aircraft deal have been stolen from theDefence Ministry and the petitioners seeking a review of its verdictdismissing all pleas against the purchase of the jets relied upon thosedocuments, reported *The Hindu.link*
Indian SC began the open court hearing, during which former union ministersYashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and Advocate Prashant Bhushan, who hadjointly filed the petition, alleged that the Centre suppressed crucialfacts when the apex court decided to dismiss the batch of PILs against theRafale deal in December.
When Bhushan referred to an article. Indian Attorney General KK Venugopalopposed it, saying that the articles were based on stolen documents and aninvestigation into the matter is on.
Venugopal said the first article by the senior journalist on February 8.Wednesday’s *The Hindu* report was aimed at influencing the proceedings andthat amounted to contempt of court, he said.
While Venugopal was seeking dismissal of the review petitions and raisingobjections to Bhushan’s arguments based on the articles published in *TheHindu,* the bench sought to know from the Centre what has it done when itis alleging that the stories are based on stolen material.
The AG also submitted that the documents on the deal relied on by thepetitioners were marked secret and classified, and therefore, are inviolation of Official Secrets Act.