The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has ordered an internal enquiry into the leak of “classified official information” relating to the Rafale scam and “violation of security instructions”, according an RTI reply.
Responding to a query posed by Mumbai-based activist Anil Galgali under the Right to Information Act (RTI), Sushil Kumar, the deputy secretary (Air Acquisition) and CPIO Air Acquisition (Capital) Wing, stated that Ministry of Defense (Security Office) had ordered an internal inquiry on disclosure of classified official information into public domain.
“Ministry of Defense (Security Office) has ordered an internal inquiry on disclosure of classified official information into public domain and violation of manual of security instructions,” Kumar stated in his reply dated May 7.
Anil Galgali had filed an online RTI query with the Defense ministry seeking information about the “stolen” Rafales files and action taken by the ministry in this regard. Galgali had also sought to know whether PMO and defense minister were aware about the stolen files and if yes, then whether a police complaint was filed or not
Alluding to inadequate reply provided by MoD on the queries posed by him under RTI Act, Galgali said: “It possible that matter is sub-judice and therefore government may not have provided full information. But, it is high time that government must come forward to clean the air to rest assure the citizens of the country about the deal, otherwise people will read so much between the lines”
The MoD’s clarification comes amid the Supreme Court reserving its verdict on petitions challenging its December 14 judgment against a probe into the controversial fighter jet deal.
In first week of March this year, Attorney General KK Venugopal had — during the hearing on a review petition in Rafale aircraft purchase case — told the SC about the theft of classified documents relating to Rafale aircraft purchase. Three days after making submission before the Supreme Court about theft of Rafale papers, Venugopal had reneged on his earlier claim and said that the petitioners
had used “photocopies of the original” papers, deemed secret by the Government.
The MoD ordered an internal enquiry into the alleged leak of classified documents relating to the media, following investigative reports on Rafale scam published by The Hindu newspaper, based on the documents accessed from the defence ministry files.
During the course of hearing on petitions challenging the apex court’s December 14 judgment against a probe into the controversial fighter jet deal, Attorney General KK Venugopal had claimed privilege over documents pertaining to the Rafale fighter jet deal.
Referring to Section 123 of the Evidence Act and provisions of RTI Act, he had argued that no one can produce these documents in the court without obtaining prior permission from the concerned department.
The Supreme Court bench asked the Attorney General that the RTI Act overrides the Offical Secrets Act as its Section 22 and Section 24 states that even intelligence and security establishments are bound to provide information about corruption and human rights violation. To this, Venugopal replied that no one can publish documents which relate to national security as the security of the State superseded everything.
Venugopal had claimed that the documents based on which reports published by The Hindu were stolen from the defence ministry and that the Centre was contemplating a probe under the Official Secrets Act.
Challenging the Centre’s objections, Advocate Prashant Bhushan had argued that the Rafale deal documents, which AG said were privileged, have been published and are already in public domain. A report in The Hindu by senior journalist N Ram had referred to the documents in question. The report said that the cost of Rafale deal went up because the French supplier did not agree to provide bank guarantees.
Bhushan had further argued that provisions of RTI Act say public interest outweighed other things and no privilege can be claimed except for documents which pertain to intelligence agencies.
Bhushan said that there was no government-to-government contract in purchasing Rafale jets as there was no sovereign guarantee extended to India by France in the Rs 58,000 crore deal. He had also said the Press Council of India Act provides provisions for protecting sources of journalists.
