Supreme Court to Reopen Modi’s Rafale Corruption Case
The Indian government has been trying to hide the truth in the controversial Rafale deal in which PM Narendra Modi is a prime accused.
By Rakesh Raman
The Supreme Court today rejected the government plea that had argued not to consider review petitions in the Rafale corruption case because those petitions were based on classified documents leaked from the Defence Ministry as evidence.
However, the judges today unanimously dismissed the government’s objections and decided to reopen the case for which the court will fix the date for hearing the petitions.
The Indian government has been trying to hide the truth in the controversial Rafale deal in which PM Narendra Modi is a prime accused.
[ Attorney General Misled the Court to Save Modi in Rafale Case ]
While India’s Attorney General (AG) K. K. Venugopal had told the Supreme Court in March that the documents related to the Rafale fighter jet deal have been stolen from the Defence Ministry, he changed his statement just a couple of days later.
Venugopal stated that when he said documents are stolen, he meant the documents were photocopied to use in the petition. In fact, Venugopal was trying to distort the truth when the Defence Ministry did not support his claim in the court that the Rafale documents were stolen.
[ Modi Govt Blamed for Misleading Supreme Court. Rafale Corruption Case Reopened ]
Earlier, a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, Justice S. K. Kaul, and K. M. Joseph had decreed that the review petitions filed by former Indian ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie along with lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan will be heard in the open court.
Along with the review petitions, the Court will also hear the correction petition filed by the Central Government, and also the petition filed for initiating perjury proceedings against officials who allegedly misled the Court by submitting false information in the notes submitted to the Court.
[ Who Will Question Emperor Modi for Rafale Scam? ]
Meanwhile, Congress party alleges that since it is a case of Section 13(1)(d) in the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988, an FIR must be registered against Modi.
Moreover, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided to file a complaint against PM Modi in the newly constituted Lokpal. An AAP leader Gopal Rai said recently that his party will file Rafale and Sahara-Birla corruption complaints against Modi with Lokpal.
The SC today rejected the objection of the Govt to considering what they called ‘stolen’ docs on the #RafaleDeal published by The Hindu, Caravan & Wire which exposed the Govt’s claimsb& their lies given to the SC in sealed cover. Our review & appln for perjury will now be heard
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) April 10, 2019
With an embezzlement of Rs. 30,000 crore (~ US$ 4 billion), the Rafale scam is stated to be the biggest government-led fraud in the world.
By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society. He also creates and publishes a number of digital publications on different subjects.
