Balasore (Odisha) [India], Dec 15 (ANI): Following the Supreme Court verdict in the Rafale jet deal, Union Minister for Petroleum Dharmendra Pradhan said Congress president Rahul Gandhi must apologise before the nation.

"Supreme Court today did a great work for India. Congress was raising questions on Rafale deal to hide their failures. There was no truth in that and Supreme Court proved it today. If Congress and its President have morals, they should apologise before the nation," Pradhan told ANI.

Echoing Pradhan's views, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and former Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje opined that the apex court's decision has exposed the lies of the Congress party.

"Congress party for the sake of gain in elections have not only called an honest leader a thief but even mislead the people of the country. If the party is left with some ethics then they should immediately apologise," tweeted Raje in Hindi.

"SC has also said that it was country's need and nobody can raise question over the quality of aircraft. Rahul Gandhi only raised accusations related to the matter due to the election. He should apologise to the nation and the army," read another tweet.

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to intervene in the Rafale fighter deal, saying there is "no occasion to really doubt the process", delivering a major victory to the government and lending a setback to the Congress which has been alleging corruption in the agreement.

"Perception of individuals cannot be the basis of a fishing and roving inquiry by this court, especially in such matters," said a three-judge bench while dismissing all the writ petitions which sought a Supreme Court-monitored probe by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) into the deal.

The top court also said it did not find any substantial material on record to show that this was a case of commercial favouritism to any party by the Government of India. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)