Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, Prashant Bhushan move SC for FIR in Rafale deal, allege 'criminal misconduct'

New Delhi: Former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie and activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking registration of an FIR into the Rafale fighter jet deal between India and France alleging “criminal misconduct” by high public functionaries. They also sought a direction to the CBI to investigate the offences mentioned in their complaint in a “time-bound” manner and submit periodic status reports to the apex court. The complaint was filed on 4 October with the CBI after their meeting with CBI Director Alok Kumar Verma, who was late Tuesday night directed by the Centre to proceed on leave in the wake of feud with his second-in-command in the agency Rakesh Asthana. The petition by the trio came two weeks after the apex court had on 10 October asked the Centre to provide details of the decision making process in the Rafale deal with France in a sealed cover by 29 October. It had clarified that it does not want information on pricing and technical particulars. The court’s order had come on two PILs filed by advocates ML Sharma and Vineet Dhanda.