'I suppose thief returned Rafale files', Congress' P Chidambaram takes dig on AG KK Venugopal's volte-face

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and former Union Minister P Chidambaram on Saturday took a dig the Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal's changed stance over the 'leaked Rafale files.' Chidambaram said that it was "stolen" on Wednesday and "photocopied document" on Friday and therefore, the "thief" must have "returned the files on Thursday." The Congress and BJP have sparred over AG's clarification, with the former saying it's just "another cover-up in the offing", and the latter claiming to have exposed the "politics of lies" on Rafale. “On Wednesday, it was ‘stolen documents’. On Friday, it was ‘photocopied documents’. I suppose the thief returned the documents in between on Thursday,” Chidambaram tweeted.

On Wednesday, it was 'stolen documents'. On Friday, it was 'photo copied documents'. I suppose the thief returned the documents in between on Thursday.

— P. Chidambaram (@PChidambaram_IN) March 9, 2019

While mocking the BJP, Chidambaram added that on Wednesday, "Officials Secrets Act was shown to the newspaper. On Friday, the Olive Branches Act was shown. We salute the common sense." The entire controversy stemmed after AG Venugopal told PTI that the "statement that files have been stolen is wholly incorrect” while adding that he was talking about "photocopies" of the secret government files. The Supreme Court is currently hearing a review petition on its December 14 judgment on Rafale deal, filed by Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, and Prashant Bhushan. During the hearing, Venugopal had said that the documents the petitioners were pointing towards were "stolen Rafale deal files" and threatened to invoke the Officials Secrets Act. After the AG's clarification on his remark, the BJP has come out in his backing with Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying that what Venugopal actually meant in his submission before the Supreme Court was that petitioners (Yashwant Sinha, Arun Shourie, and Prashant Bhushan) in the application used "photocopies of the original" papers, considered secret by the government. Source: Times Now