The government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that documents related to the Rafale aircraft deal have been stolen from the defence ministry. It added that the petitioners seeking a review of the verdict dismissing all pleas against the purchase of the jets had relied on those documents.
A three-judge bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S.K. Kaul and K.M. Joseph began the open court hearing during which former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan, who had jointly filed the petition, alleged that the Centre suppressed crucial facts when the apex court decided to dismiss the batch of PILs against the Rafale deal in December.
When Bhushan referred to an article written by senior journalist N. Ram in The Hindu, attorney general K.K. Venugopal opposed it, saying it was based on stolen documents and an investigation into the theft is on.
