PANAJI: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar Wednesday termed the audio clip cited by the Congress on the Rafale deal as a desperate attempt to fabricate facts after the Supreme Court exposed the “lies” of the opposition party.
Parrikar’s comments came hours after the Congress quoted him as saying that he had a file on Rafale deal “lying in his bedroom”.
Earlier in the day, Congress came out with an audio clip of a purported conversation between Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane and another person in which the minister says that during a Goa cabinet meeting last week, Parrikar stated he had “an entire file and all documents” relating to the Rafale deal lying in his bedroom.
The conversation was played by Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala for the media outside Parliament in Delhi this morning.
Surjewala also asked if this was the reason why a joint parliamentary committee probe into the Rafale deal was not being ordered.
He quoted Rane as saying, “The chief minister made a very interesting statement, that I have all the information of Rafale in my bedroom….that’s means he is holding them to ransom. He said it is in my bedroom here only in my flat, each and every document on Rafale.”
Hitting back, Parrikar said in a tweet: “The audio clip released by the Congress party is a desperate attempt to fabricate facts after their lies were exposed by the recent Supreme Court verdict on Rafale deal. No such discussion ever came up during Cabinet or any other meeting”.
Parrikar was the defense minister when the Rafale deal was signed between India and France for purchase of fighter aircraft.
Rane has already denied the allegation against him, saying he never had any such conversation on the issue and accused the Congress of coming up with a “fake clip”.
On December 14 last year, the apex court had dismissed all PILs alleging irregularities in the procurement of 36 Rafale jets from France. PTI
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