Former Union minister Yashwant Sinha who moved the petition in the Supreme Court seeking a review of its verdict that rejected calls for a court-monitored investigation into the Rafale deal spoke to Outlook's Puneet Nicholas Yadav on the top court's Wednesday order that has held that leaked confidential documents can be part of the review petitions. Excerpts:
What is your first impression of the court's order?
As I have said in my tweet, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government is a government that lies. The lies have now been exposed. I welcome the Supreme Court's order. We have crossed the first hurdle and we now have to prepare to argue the case on merits, based on the documents that are now in public domain which prove that there is ample reason to investigate various aspects of the Rafale deal.
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How confident are you that your request for an investigation will be granted by the court?
I was confident earlier and I am confident now. This is a fit case for investigation. The government tried to deliberately mislead the court by submitting false claims. The documents that we are relying on, and thanks to the revelations made by The Hindu, prove without any doubt that this government lied. Deliberate fabrications were done to prevent the court from intervening. The documents prove it and now we will fight the case to its logical conclusion.
Do you believe that this is also a case for seeking strictures against the government for deliberate misrepresentation of facts before the court?
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Absolutely. We have also filed a separate case of perjury against the government. The government must be tried for deliberately misleading the court. We will pursue the perjury case alongside the review petition.
