Rafale documents are stolen from Defence Ministry: Attorney General to Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The government of India on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that documents related to the Rafale fighter jet deal have been stolen from the Defence Ministry and threatened The Hindu newspaper with the Official Secretsa Act for publishing articles based on them.nnThose who put documents on the Rafale deal in the public domain are guilty under the Act as also contempt of court, Attorney General K K Venugopal said before a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi.nnWhile publishing articles based on stolen documents amounts to violation of the Official Secrets Act, entailing maximum punishment of up to 14 years, the contempt law attracts six months jail as also a fine of Rs 2,000.nnUnruffled by the Centre’s stand, Hindu publishing group Chairman N Ram said nobody would get any information from the newspaper on the confidential sources who provided the documents.nnRam said those documents were published in public interest as the details of the Rafale deal were withheld or covered up.nn”You may call it stolen documents…we are not concerned. We got it from confidential sources and we are committed to protecting these sources. Nobody is going to get any information from us on these sources. But the documents speak for themselves and the stories speak for themselves,” Ram told PTI.nnAn investigation into the theft is on, the attorney general said on a day the newspaper published another article on the fighter jet deal.nnThe bench, also including Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph, was hearing a batch of petitions seeking a review of its December 14 verdict dismissing all the pleas against the deal procured by India from France.nnFormer 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.nnWhen Bhushan referred to an articles written by Ram, Venugopal said the write-ups were based on stolen documents.nnAn FIR has not been registered so far into the theft of documents, he said.nnThe first write-up appeared on February 8 and Wednesday’s edition had another article aimed at influencing the court’s proceedings which amounted to contempt of court, he said.nnThe newspaper published the documents by omitting the word ‘secret’ on top, he said, seeking a dismissal of the review petitions and raising objections to Bhushan’s arguments based on the articles.nnThe bench sought to know from the Centre as to what it has done when it alleges that the stories are based on stolen material.nnOn behalf of Sinha, Shourie and himself, Bhushan said the top court would not have dismissed the plea for an FIR and the probe, had critical facts not been suppressed.nnVenugopal said the documents relied upon by Bhushan were stolen from the Defence Ministry and an investigation into the matter was underway.nnThe CJI said hearing Bhushan did not mean the top court was taking on record the documents on the Rafale deal. Justice Gogoi also asked Venugopal to tell the court what action had been taken on theft of documents on the aircraft deal.nnThe AG submitted that the documents were marked secret and classified and are therefore in violation of the Official Secrets Act.nnHe also told the Supreme Court that the Rafale case pertains to defence procurement which cannot be reviewed judicially.nnReferring to the aerial combat with Pakistan last week, he said the country needs the Rafale jet to defend itself “from F-16 fighter planes that recently bombed us”.nn”Without Rafale how can we resist them,” he said, adding that two squadrons of Rafale fighter jets are coming to India in flyaway condition and the first one will be in by September.nnHe also said that although MIG 21 of 1960s performed beautifully against F16, Rafale fighter jets were needed.nnThe Bench, which will hear the review petitions further on March 14, was told by Venugopal that every statement of the apex court made in the Rafale case may be used to destabilise either the government or the opposition and therefore court should refrain from making it.nnThe high voltage hearing saw the bench showering several tricky questions to the AG who was buttressing that the stolen materials cannot be relied to revisit the judgement dismissing the pleas and it was necessary to determine the sources who provided the sensitive documents.nnThe bench asked Venugopal “if an act of corruption is committed in Rafale deal, will govt take shelter behind Official Secrets Act? I (CJI) am not saying it is committed, but if it is then government cannot take shelter behind OSA.”nnIt further said it been has settled in a catena of judgments that even if stolen documents are cited, and if they are found relevant, the court can look into them.nnOpposing the plea for CBI inquiry into the Rafale deal, Venugopal said any order to the effect would be damaging to the country as the recent incidents have shown how vulnerable is the scenario in which the country was trying to meet its defence requirements.nnHowever, the bench said the issue of national security did not arise in the case as allegations were of grave crime of corruption.nnThe Attorney General went ahead with his submissions and said “certain issues are outside the purview of judicial review.nn”Do we have to come to the court to justify when we declare war, when we declare peace? Do we have to come and seek permission of the court every time,?” he asserted.nnSource: Press Trust of India