NCP chief Sharad Pawar Saturday
termed as "absolutely wrong" the Union government's claim in the Supreme Court that a Comptroller and Auditor General report on the Rafale deal had been examined by the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament.
Speaking to media channels in Pune, he noted that the apex court's decision on the Rafale purchase was based on the information provided to it by the Centre.
The court had on Friday dismissed all the petitions seeking an investigation into alleged irregularities in the
Rs 58,000 crore Rafale deal stating that there was no occasion to doubt the decision-making process in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France.
It had said the material placed before it showed that the Centre did not disclose in Parliament the pricing details of the Rafale fighter jet, but revealed it to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
It said the CAG report was even examined by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament.
"The material placed before us shows that the government has not disclosed pricing details, other than the basic price of the aircraft, even to the Parliament, on the ground that sensitivity of pricing details could affect national security, apart from breaching the agreement between the two countries," a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S K Kaul and K M Joseph said.
Pawar said, "The SC judgement says the decision is based on the information they got from government. The government told them that the CAG has studied it and PAC approved it. However, those things are not correct. This is absolutely wrong".
He claimed that neither had CAG studied it nor had the PAC even discussed it.
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