NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected petitions seeking an inquiry into the Rafale fighter jet deal and warned Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to be “more careful in future” as it closed a contempt case against him linked to the issue.
The top court said it found no merit in the pleas for review of its earlier ruling in which it had given a clean chit to the government and ruled out any “roving” inquiry into the deal for procuring 36 fighter planes from French company Dassault.
The court had on May 10 reserved its order on the petitions filed by lawyer Prashant Bhushan and former Union ministers Yashwant Singh and Arun Shourie, seeking a review of its ruling of December last year that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process involved in the Rafale deal.
A three-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and comprising Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said the court does not feel it necessary to order a “roving” inquiry or an FIR into the deal to probe the deal announced in April 2015 during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to France.
The Rafale deal issue was raked up vigorously by the Congress during campaigning in the last Lok Sabha election, with its then President Rahul Gandhi alleging corruption in it and targeting the Prime Minister through his slogan “Chowkidar chor hai” (watchman is the thief).
Rahul Gandhi once even claimed that the Supreme Court too had said that “Chowkidar chor hai”.
BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi then approached the Supreme Court, saying Rahul’s comments amounted to contempt of court. The apex court took a serious view of Rahul’s
comments attributed to it and asked him to submit an apology, which he did. — IANS
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