Proceedings in the NTRO scam have taken a new turn as the Supreme Court on Monday asked the Union government to be ready with a copy of the CAG report on the next hearing in March so that the court could ascertain it had taken effective action against the officials who looted the exchequer.
A law suit filed by a former scientist VK Mittal has sought court’s intervention in the scandal that took place in the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), a premier technical intelligence gathering agency.
On a plea by Mittal’s counsel Jayant Bhushan that the so-called action by the authorities was a farce, a bench of justices HL Dattu and CK Prasad asked solicitor general Rohinton Nariman to keep ready with a copy of the CAG report in a sealed cover on March 19.
As SG sought dismissal of the appeal, Bhushan said it’s for the court to decide whether action as claimed by the government was effective and for that the CAG report must be examined. He said the government hasn’t placed the report before Parliament.
The NTRO was created by the government in 2004 under the Prime Minister’s Office essentially to deal with Missile Monitoring, Satellite and Airborne Imagery, Cyber Patrolling and Security, Cyber Offensive operations, communication support systems as well as Cryptology.
Earlier, the court had scoffed at the Centre’s stand that the accounts of this organisation couldn’t be made public because of the nature of its operations.
