From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday declined to entertain a PIL by Delhi lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma, seeking an independent probe into the Rafale fighter jet deal on the basis of a French media report that Dassault Aviation paid one million Euros to a middleman for executing the deal.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice S Ravindra Bhat told Sharma: “No casse is made out for interference of this court.” Sharma is a habitual litigant filing petitions on all sorts of subjects.
In an attempt to influence the court to entertain his plea, Sharma said one day will come when each and every person will feel helpless and and nobody will come forward to question corruption. The Chief Justice told Sharma that the court has already passed the order to dismiss his plea. Later, Sharma agreed to withdraw the plea, which was allowed by the court.
Sharma said he will go to the CBI in the matter. The top court said, “Nobody is stopping you.”
His petition had sought prosecution of the alleged middleman under the charges of cheating, breach of trust and criminal cospiracy in pocketing the alleged kickbacks of one million Euros in the Rafale deal.
Sharma relied on reports by Mediapart, a French online journal, published earlier this month. The online journal claimed that it was in possession of documents that showed Dassault Aviation, which manufactures the Rafale jet, and its industrial partner Thales, a defence electronics firm, paid around 1 million euros “secret commissions” in connection with the deal.
