The documents referred to by Rahul Gandhi to make bribery charges against Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been termed ‘fictitious’ by the Supreme Court.
Lawyer Prashant Bhushan has filed a petition in the apex court demanding a probe into bribery allegations against Narendra Modi from the time he was Gujarat chief minister,
The PIL sought a SIT probe in the alleged pay-offs by corporate houses to politicians, including Narendra Modi during his tenure as Gujarat CM.
While hearing the plea on November 25 , a bench of Justices J S Khehar and Arun Mishra maintained that ordering an investigation based merely on unverified entries made in a diary or on a computer would have “far-reaching” consequences since “unscrupulous people” could bring the entire world and even the Prime Minister under a cloud by simply recording entries of pay-offs.
Bhushan had alleged that the documents " reportedly revealed massive bribery " of politicians and officials by the Aditya Birla Group and Sahara over the years. He mentioned that the Sahara documents said a huge cash amount was given to the CM of Gujarat in October and November, 2013.
"Are you relying on Sahara's documents? They never have genuine documents," Justice Khehar said.
“Who has made these entries? Whose computer was this? Tomorrow, if a man makes entries alleging 100 people have been paid money, should we be initiating inquiry against all of them?” the bench asked Bhushan.
The bench noted, “If we accept what you say, then somebody can tomorrow make an entry that I sent PM this much of money… see how far-reaching this could be. We are not shying away from taking action against anybody but you must have something, even prima facie, to show wrongdoing. We cannot initiate proceedings only because you name a big man. There has to be something.”
“If any suspicion arouses our conscience, it is a good suspicion but your suspicion does not do it… this is only insinuation. Show us better material because we are not satisfied at all with this. It is zero for us,” the bench said.
Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi received kickbacks as chief minister of Gujarat from a corporate house.
Speaking at a rally in Gujarat's Mehsana, Rahul said Sahara paid Narendra Modi nine times in a span of six months.
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s remarks, Bhushan said he has procured more documents following the apex court observations to come up with "better material" to support the allegations.
"The documents recovered by the Income Tax department are a part of its appraisal report. The Supreme Court has not seen many documents presented by us. There are more documents that we have got subsequently," Bhushan said.
