New Delhi, Dec 01: Refusing to part with information
on the controversial Scorpene submarine deal, the CBI has said
that any revelation of inputs received from foreign
governments on the alleged payment of kickbacks
in the Rs.16,000 crore deal will "adversely" India's
diplomatic relations with those nations which co-operated in
the investigation.
"Disclosure of the CBI report to public will not only
be against the interests of the nation but will also adversely
affect the diplomatic relations of India with the concerned
country (which participated in the investigation)," CBI
director Aswani Kumar said in his affidavit before the Delhi
High Court.
"It is submitted that some of the information is
information received in confidence from foreign government and
the disclosure thereof may prejudicially affect the
relationship of India with foreign states," Kumar said in his
13-page affidavit.
The Director mentioned various conditions imposed by
the investigating agencies of foreign countries pertaining to
not disclosing the information supplied by them to public.
The CBI claimed that its inquiry report is a
"privilege" document which could not be disclosed to public.
"The deponent (CBI) claims privilege in respect of the
documents and states that public interest would suffer
adversely by its disclosure," the Director said.
"Confidentiality of the information contained in
Report of CBI far over-weigh the public interest involved in
disclosure of such material," he said adding "the disclosure
of the information in question would be contrary to public
interest and prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity
of India".
The CBI's response came on a plea of an NGO, seeking a
copy of the report.
At the time of filing the inquiry report in a sealed
envelop few months back; the CBI had said that it had so far
found no evidence of involvement of kickbacks in the deal.
The report also had details on the investigations that helped
the CBI to arrive at this conclusion.
The NGO, the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, on
whose plea the Court had earlier directed the CBI inquiry, had
contended that if the agency is opposing a full-fledged
investigation into the deal on the basis of its findings then
it should atleast be allowed to go through the report to
counter CBI's contention.
Earlier, the government had informed the court that
the CBI had gone through several pen-drives, email messages
and records of telephonic conversations, which allegedly took
place between officials of the submarine-maker Thales and
the alleged middlemen, but could not find any evidence.
The investigating agency conducted the preliminary
inquiry on a court direction passed on December 20.
The court in its order had restrained the agency from
closing the case after conducting the inquiry and had said
that the CBI would have to satisfy it that there was no
evidence of payment of kickbacks in the deal.
The government had finalised the Rs 16,00O crore deal
with the French company in October 2005. The petition alleged
that there were middlemen involved in the deal which was
against the government's policy.
Bureau Report