The Centre on Wednesday told the Delhi high court that the Intelligence Bureau had no "material" (records) regarding the Rs 16,000 crore Scorpene submarine deal.
A Division Bench comprising Delhi Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Hima Kohli, which is hearing a public interest litigation seeking an independent probe into the controversial defence purchase, directed the Central government counsel to file an affidavit sworn by an Intelligence Bureau official to that effect.
The PIL filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation through noted lawyer Prashant Bhushan had claimed that the Intelligence Bureau had intercepted e-mails from Delhi-based businessman Abhishek Verma to certain people in power in connection with the Scorpene submarine deal.
The petitioner had also claimed that IB had been probing the matter from May 2005 to February 2006 before the case was handed over to the CBI for investigation.
The court had directed the Centre to submit the IB records after Bhushan, during the last hearing, had said the defence ministry was trying to give a carefully guarded denial of his claim about the probe by the intelligence agency.
The court also took on record a CBI status report on the probe into the naval war room leak case. The document, kept in a sealed cover, will be examined on January 11, the next date of hearing.
The Bench was hearing the PIL filed by Centre for Public Interest Litigation, an NGO, seeking an investigation into
alleged payment of kickbacks in the deal.
The petitioner had also sought action against the beneficiaries of the alleged commission of Rs 640 crore in the purchase.
The petitioner alleged that though the government had prior information about the shady deal and involvement of middlemen as pointed out by the Central Vigilance Conmission 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 Outlook magazine to buttress the demand for a probe into the deal since it involved national security.