Former Union ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha along with lawyer Prashant Bhushan complained about Rafale deal to ousted CBI chief Alok Verma.
New Delhi: Former Union ministers Arun Shourie and Yashwant Sinha and lawyer-activist Prashant Bhushan moved the Supreme Court Wednesday, seeking directions to the CBI to register an FIR and investigate offences disclosed in a complaint about the Rafale deal.
They had submitted the complaint to now-ousted director Alok Verma on 4 October, asking for the probe to be conducted “in a time-bound manner”, and “to submit periodic status reports to the court”.
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The trio has also alleged that there was “enormous pressure on the CBI because of the nature of the persons involved not to undertake this investigation”.
In the petition, they have sought directions to the Central government to “cease and desist from influencing or intimidating in any way the officials that would investigate the offences disclosed in the complaint”.
‘Abuse of position’
Shourie, Sinha and Bhushan have said they were approaching the court because “high ranking public servants have abused their position” in finalising the new Rafale deal without following the laid down procedures in order to obtain a valuable thing in the nature of offset contracts for industrialist Anil Ambani.
This, they have alleged, amounts to criminal misconduct under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
“The petitioners’ prayer to the Hon’ble Court, is for directions to the CBI to register an FIR on the complaint that they have filed on 04th of October, 2018 against the persons named therein and to investigate the very serious abuse of authority by the Prime Minister and other persons involved by gross violation of mandatory procedures that has resulted in corruption amounting to thousands of crores of rupees and compromised the national security of the country (sic),” they said in the petition.
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Alleging that mandatory procedures have been violated with impunity to extend “undue advantages to a private individual and his sham firms”, the petitioners have alleged that since the accused were occupying the “highest of public offices”, they were in a position to influence the CBI and its officials.
“The accused are abusing the high offices they hold to intimidate and influence the officials of the CBI. It is imperative that the CBI be insulated from such adverse influence by directing a Court-monitored investigation,” the petition read.
The story is currently heading towards a perilous course as it appears to be a more of an individual’s decision without any due process.Sanjiv bhatla’s comments look more like a lament of a bhakth and his comparison is too far fetched.
All this indirectly reminds me of 1975, and I kind of feel uneasy. Allahabad High Court had annulled Indira Gandhi’s election then. Now, the Supreme Court has on its own asked Modi government to explain the decision-making process of the Rafale deal. From the stuff we have been seeing in the news in last few months, there was no “process”, there was only a “decision”. What will the government show to SC on 29 October?
And now these three gentlemen have (very rightly) reached the apex court with the same Rafale lament. Mr Modi appears to be in the same kind of hopeless situation in which Indira Gandhi was in 1975. Not quite there yet, but fast moving towards it. The million dollar question is, “will Mr Modi’s response be the same as was Indira Gandhi’s?” This is the moment that will test Mr Modi’s mettle, his statesmanship, and even his greatness that once in a while shimmers out during his more lucid speeches.