One more held in War Room leak case

      New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested one more person - Sambhajee L Surve, an ex-Wing Commander of Indian Air Force from Pune on Monday in connection with the Navy War Room leak case. Surve is the sixth person arrested in the case after he failed to reply to various questions related to the case. On Sunday he was was summoned by the CBI. Earlier, the CBI had arrested five persons including three officers, Commander Vinod Rana and Commander V K Jha who are the two dismissed officers of the Armed Forces and Kulbhushan Parashar who is a retired Navy officer. Another two persons arrested were Mukesh Bajaj and Raj Rani Jaiswal from Pune Parashar was taken into custody upon his arrival at Indira Gandhi International Airport from London. Rana was nabbed from Dwarka in South West Delhi and Jha was arrested from Muzzafarpur in Bihar. Parashar and Rana got 14 days of CBI custody after they both were produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Maini. Jha was being brought here after his transit remand was taken from Muzzafarpur. Wing Commander (retired) S K Kohli and Wing Commander (retired) S Surbe are also named in the case.

    The CBI registered the case into the Navy war room leak nearly 45 days after the Defence Ministry had handed over investigations to the agency. The CBI also raided more than 17 places across the country after the agency registered a case against nine people including Ravi Shankaran, a kin of Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash, in connection with case. Raids were also conducted at some places including Delhi, Goa, Chandigarh, Mumbai and Muzzafarpur. The CBI got all the documents related to the case on March 26 from the Defence Ministry and the agency is scrutinising them before registering a case. The Defence Ministry had asked CBI on February 18 to probe the leaks from the Naval head-quarters. According to the CBI sources, the Defence Ministry had sent all the papers, including the court of inquiry report against the three officers which would help the agency in registering a case.

     Following reports that the leaks pertain to purchase of six French 'Scorpene' submarines worth Rs 13,000-crore; the government had referred the case to the CBI. In December, when intelligence officers had found a pen drive from senior Air Force Officer Wing Commander S L Surve which reportedly contained classified naval information, the Navy had formed a board of inquiry. On April 7, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has demanded Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee's resignation over the naval war room leak case, and alleged that "Mukherjee had misled the nation by terming the information leaked out as mere commercial information". Thales is the French company with which the Indian Government signed the multi crores deal to purchase six Scorpene submarines. The CBI investigating the case recently carried nationwide raids in 17 places and has arrested five persons in this regard.

SC rejects Scorpene deal litigation

     New Delhi: The Supreme Court today refused to entertain a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking an independent probe into the Scorpene submarine deal. The petition said a recent expose showed the involvement of middlemen in its crudest form in the deal, involving an alleged commission of Rs. 640 crore. A Bench of Justices Ruma Pal, Dalveer Bhandari and Markandey Katju in its judgement asked the petitioners to move the High Court in this regard. The petition was filed by the Centre for PIL, the Citizens Forum against Corruption and Transparency International India. The Cabinet Committee on security in March 2005 raised objections on the ground that the price was too high. While the initial estimated cost of the submarine was about Rs. 700 crore, the French Government sought an increase to Rs. 2,100 crore. As per the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), the petition said the Defence Ministry went head with the deal knowing well about the involvement of middlemen. The Indian Government's decision last October to sign a contract with the French company Thales for the procurement of six Scorpene submarines for the Indian Navy at a whooping 18,798 crore rupees along with a tax component of Rs 3,553 crore, is said to be the biggest ever single arms purchase contract undertaken by New Delhi.

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