Three senior officers posted at the War Room at Naval Headquarters have been indicted for leaking classified information from the highly secure location
NEW DELHI: Three senior officers who were posted at the War Room at Naval Headquarters have been indicted by an inquiry for leaking classified information from the highly secure location. The leak was first reported by DNA almost two months ago.
Naval sources said on Friday that a four-member team headed by Rear Admiral Ganesh Mahadevan, which inquired into the leak, submitted its report early this week to Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash.
The inquiry report, running into more than 1,000 pages, found the officers guilty of “gross misconduct and impropriety” in leaking some computer disks containing classified information about naval plans. The information is believed to have eventually reached Pakistan.
The three officers will now have to face a formal board of inquiry. It is also possible that they may be asked to resign and go quietly so that a detailed inquiry does not bring unsavoury details and embarrassing allegations to the fore. A final decision on the matter is yet to be taken. The report will now be sent to the defence minister.
The three officers who have been indicted are Captain Kashyap Kumar, former director of naval operations, and commanders V Rana and VK Jha. The officers had been placed under house arrest when the incident came to light.
The case came out into the open when the Intelligence Bureau arrested a low-level spy working with the Indian Air Force for a few months. They stumbled upon sensitive naval information in his possession, and the navy was alerted. A sustained surveillance was mounted on the War Room from where alone that information could have been available.
The leak had baffled investigators. It was the first time in history that anyone was able to break in at multiple levels into such a sensitive Indian installation, that too at very senior levels.
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