Status of Navy War Room Leak Case

What is the issue?

The Navy war room leak case which posed a threat to the nation is yet to be solved.

What is the Navy war room leak about?

• In 2005, over 7,000 pages of sensitive defence information from the Navy War Room and the Air Headquarters were leaked to arms dealers and middle man.
• The leak of sensitive information came to light in May 2005 when an officer was found in possession of an unauthorised pen drive containing documents had a direct bearing on national security.
• Naval Intelligence conducted an in-house investigation with fixed responsibility on three war room officers Commander Vijendra Rana, Commander Vinod Kumar Jha and Captain Kashyap Kumar.

What were the documents found leaked?

• A file containing a war game marked ‘Top Secret’, based on inputs sent to Naval HQ by Indian intelligence.
• Details of the Navy’s operations, including its fleet and submarines, for the next 20 years, information that could translate into windfall gains for any defence equipment company.
• Details of “vulnerable areas” and “vulnerable points” in India’s air defence network,a standard operating procedure for the Pechora missile project.
• A brief on Sir Creek, marked ‘Secret’, for the Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff ahead of his talks with Pakistan, Files relating to Sir Creek and the Navy’s positioning in this disputed territory.
• Details of the joint response by the Army, Navy and Air Force in case of a Pakistani ingress in Kutch sector.

What were the actions taken on the offenders?

• All three officers were sacked without a trial, using a provision under Article 311 of the Constitution.
• Which allows summary action in case “the President or the Governor, as the case may be, is satisfied that in the interest of the security of the State, it is not expedient to hold such inquiry”.
• The probe and action was initially limited to Naval Headquarters, due to its significance the government handed the investigations to the CBI in 2006.
• CBI registered an FIR and raided over 20 locations connected to the middle men and arms dealers.
• Few accused in the case are currently facing trial in a special CBI court, the main offender Captain Kashyap Kumar was neither arrested nor charge sheeted so far.
• Some other prime suspects were asylum in UK and Europe, due to lack of extradition treaty and other operational difficulties they are yet to be arrested and penalised.

Source: The Indian Express