The CBI today expressed its unwillingness in Delhi High Court in revealing details of investigations into the alleged payment of kickbacks in the Rs 16,000 crore Scorpene submarine deal to an NGO, on whose complaint the preliminary inquiry was conducted.
"The report contains details of communication between the CBI with International agencies like Interpol. We have certain international arrangement under which we cannot reveal those information," Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium, appearing for CBI, said.
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 contained details on the investigations that helped it arrive at this conclusion.
The ASG contended before a Bench headed by Chief Justice A P Shah that such sensitive information could not be made public and he would file a proper affidavit on the issue before the court.
The NGO, the Centre for Public Interest Litigation, on whose plea the Court had earlier directed the CBI inquiry, objected over the stand of the investigating agency.
"This is not fair on the part of the government. The Court opened the seal of the report on September 12 but the Centre didn't say at that time that contents of the report cannot be disclosed," advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the NGO, contended.
The Court on the last hearing had asked the agency to take instructions from the government so that NGO could be allowed to peruse the report if providing its copy was not feasible.
The bench had observed that if contents of the report are not revealed to the NGO then it would be a "handicap" for its lawyers to oppose the CBI's findings.
