New Delhi, March 6: In the latest twist to the Rafale Deal controversy, Attorney General KK Venugopal on Wednesday during the hearing of review petitions told the Supreme Court that the documents related to the deal were stolen from the Defence Ministry. Venugopal further added that an investigation is underway to probe the theft case. He further added that those were the same documents which were published by ‘The Hindu’ last month and the media house had violated the Official Secrets Act. Full Text of Rafale Deal Verdict by Supreme Court.

The Attorney General also stated that the documents are marked as secrets and could not be in the public domain. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court asked the Attorney General about the steps taken by the government after the documents were reportedly stolen. Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi sought for Venugopal's reply before 2 pm 'Rafale Deal is India's Biggest Defence Scam' Says Arun Shourie at TMC's United India Rally.

Meanwhile, advocate Prashant Bhushan, one of the petitioner told the top court that they had also made a supplementary affidavit based on reports by The Hindu's Narasimman Ram. Replying to which the CJI said, "We don't want any supplementary stuff. We have read what all you have given us."

The three-judge bench headed by the CJI is hearing petitions seeking review of its December 14 verdict on the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jets in an open court. There are two review petitions one filed by former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie and advocate Prashant Bhushan, and the other by Aam Aadmi Party MP Sanjay Singh.

In its earlier verdict, the apex court dismissed all petitions seeking a probe into the pricing of multi-million dollar Rafale fighter jets deal. A bench, headed by Gogoi, said there was "nothing questionable" in the decision-making process for the Rafale deal. "We are satisfied that there is no occasion to doubt the process.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 06, 2019 01:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).