Four naval officers from the Western Naval Command, who are in the dock for allegedly divulging classified information and data on social networking websites, will not be charged for espionage.
Though the quantum of punishment recommended for these officers is not yet known, but sources in the the Navy indicate that one of the two officers out of the four could face dismissal from the service.
“Prima facie case suggests that these four officers will not be booked on espionage charges. But stringent action for leaking confidential information will be taken against these officers. In fact, one or two officers might face dismissal from the service,” said a navy officer on condition of anonymity.
Sources maintained that to charge an officer under espionage, he or she first has to be arrested by police. And in this case, none of these officers has been arrested by Naval police so far.
According to sources, the four commander-rank officers were batch mates, who joined the Navy in 1996. Also, all of them were from the INS Shivaji. Sources further revealed that the officers were found revealing information on location of warships and other confidential data on various social networking sites such as Facebook and unauthorised foreigners had access to all this.
Navy officials said that these officers were spotted during periodical internal audit carried out by the navy. “As per standing order, nobody from the armed forces is allowed to use any social networking site by disclosing his or her official identity. In a bid to track, we generally carry out periodical audit and if we find anyone using such networking sites, the officer is subjected to strict action,” added the officer.
The inquiry was ordered by the Western Command in December after it suspected that information about service matters was being shared in open domain.
A Naval board of inquiry recommended action against four senior officers who were facing charges of allegedly possessing and leaking classified information through social networking websites. Navy sources said a board of inquiry was ordered against the four officers from the technical branch for allegedly possessing classified information on their personal computers.
The Navy had in the past issued guidelines to its men against discussing any official information or identifying their warships’ location in public domain.
Meanwhile, the ministry of defence has also sought details of probe against the four navy officials involved.
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