Congress President Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that there was enough evidence to prosecute Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the Rafale scam. He said that the ‘trail of corruption’ began and ended with the PM.
“There is now enough evidence to prosecute the PM in the #RafaleScam. The trail of corruption begins & ends with him. That crucial Rafale files incriminating him are now reported “stolen” by the Govt, is destruction of evidence & an obvious coverup,” Gandhi said in a tweet. He concluded his social media post with a hashtag #FIRagainstCorruptModi.
Gandhi found an instant support from teh Trinamool Congress, whose spokesperson Derek O’Brien agreed with him as he wrote, “Agree with Mr Gandhi.”
There is now enough evidence to prosecute the PM in the #RafaleScam.
The trail of corruption begins & ends with him.
That crucial Rafale files incriminating him are now reported “stolen” by the Govt, is destruction of evidence & an obvious coverup. #FIRagainstCorruptModi
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) March 6, 2019
Gandhi attack came just moments after his party’s chief spokesperson, Randeep S Surjewala demanded that PM Modi be booked under the prevention of corruption act after his government’s top lawyer admitted before the Supreme Court that key documents related to the Rafale deal had been stolen from the ministry of defence.
Speaking to reporters, Surjewala had said, “It is now clear that corruption and malfeasance in Rafale deal is Writ large. It is clear that none less than Prime Minister of India caused loss to the public exchequer by misusing his office. It is a clear cut case of Section 13, (1)D of prevention of corruption act and other offences under the Indian Penal Code.”
Earlier Kejriwal had taken to Twitter to call Modi very dangerous to India as he wrote, “This means that Modi jis has committed a theft. Now he has got the entire set of documents stolen. If he had committed a theft, where was the need to have documents disappeared? A prime minister, who masterminds stealing of documents related to the armed forces is very dangerous to the country.”
The Centre’s Narendra Modi government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that documents related to the Rafale deal were stolen from the ministry of defence. Attorney General KK Venugopal had told the Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, Justice SK Kaul and Justice KM Joseph that documents relating to the Rafale deal, which advocate Prashant Bhushan has been relying on, were stolen from the ministry of defence.
AG Venugopal had cited a 2004 Supreme Court judgment that illegally obtained evidence could not be relied upon. To which Justice KM Joseph had asked if the principle propounded by the AG should be applied in Bofors case? He had asked, “Can that case also be shut out?”
In December last year, the Congress had accused the Modi government of lying in the Supreme Court, which had refused to order an inquiry in the alleged scam involving the purchase of Rafale jets.