Delhi Court issues notices to Centre, CBI in Scorpene deal

New Delhi, Apr 28 (UNI) The Delhi High Court today issued notices to the Centre, the CVC and the CBI on a PIL seeking probe into the Rs 18,798 crore French submarine Scorpene deal in which kickbacks had been allegedly received by several middlemen including the son of a former Congress Parliamentarian and nephew of the Navy Chief.

A division bench headed by acting Chief Justice Vijendra Jain issued notices to the respondents asking them to file their replies by May 30, the next date of hearing.

Senior counsel Prashant Bhushan appearing for the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL) had sought the direction of the court for a CBI probe into the deal.

''The CBI while investigating into the ''War Room Leak Case'' found several e-mails of Abhishek Verma, the son of former Congress Rajya Sabha Member and other persons who were involved with the Scorpene deal,'' said the petition.

There were also telephonic talk between Varma and Ravi Shankaran, the nephew of Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash. Shankaran was also in constant touch with Admiral Prakash during the finalisation of the deal, alleged the petition.

The bench asked the respondents to file their counter-affidavits within three weeks and the petitioner to file their reply in one week.

The petition alleged that the government, instead of acting against the middlemen, chose to institute a CBI inquiry against certain Indian Navy personnel for allegedly leaking war-room secrets on the Fench submarine.

The petitioner alleged that though the government had prior information about the ''shady deal and involvement of middlemen as pointed out by the CVC and the Ministry of Defence, the contract was finalised for obvious reasons''.

The petition quoted various official communications and parliamentary discussions, besides the investigative reports published in the 'outlook' magazine to substantiate the demand for a probe into the deal as it involves national security.

The CPIL had approached the Supreme Court on April 10 with a similar plea but the apex court directed the petitioner to move the High Court.

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