Former Union Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday took a sarcastic jibe on Attorney General of KK Venugopal for latter's recent remarks on controversial Rafale deal.
“Day before yesterday they accused a 150-year old newspaper of stealing the paper. Yesterday they said that that that they were were photocopied. Only, I guess on Thursday, this ‘thief’ returned the documents,” Chidambaram said.
On Friday, Attorney General K K Venugopal said that the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry, but the petitioners used photocopies.
"I am told that the opposition has alleged what was argued (in SC) was that files had been stolen from the Defence Ministry. This is wholly incorrect. The statement that files have been stolen is wholly incorrect," KK Venugopal told.
Venugopal was later supported by the Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman. “Learned AG KK Venugopal told @PTI_News the Rafale documents were not stolen from the Defence Ministry & what he meant in his submission before the Supreme Court was that petitioners in the application used "photocopies of the original, (sic)" papers, deemed secret by the government,” Sitharaman wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter
His comments in the apex court on Wednesday that Rafale fighter jet deal documents were stolen caused a political row, with Congress president Rahul Gandhi targeting the government over stealing of such sensitive papers and seeking a criminal investigation.
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