Navy

[LK.]

Web posted at: 9/4/2005 0:37:32

Source ::: IANS

New Delhi: Information on future acquisitions, schematic designs and sensitive data on deployment of ships were some of the secrets leaked out from the Indian Navy?s war room, says an internal probe report that will soon be submitted.

The probe into how secrets were leaked out from the war room of the Directorate of Naval Operations (DNO) was conducted by Rear Admiral Ganesh Mahadeva. Sources said the report, which has zeroed in on four senior navy officers, will be shortly given to the Directorate of Personal Services and subsequently to the Judge Advocate General (JAG) to decide on the next course of action.

It has come to light that designs for submarine control simulators, especially for the Shishkumar class submarines, were downloaded on a pen drive and given to at least one former naval officer, running a profitable commercial enterprise.

Highly placed sources said that the board of inquiry (BoI) was trying to ascertain if information on the specifications of the submarine simulators, each costing over $5m, was given to a German company. While the names of three former officers - K K Sharma, Kulbushan Parashar and K. Shankaran ? have already surfaced during interrogation, the name of a fourth person, Chandra Shamsher Singh Deopa has also cropped up.

Sharma reportedly worked for a huge, international air-conditioning company with products and services sold in over 125 countries.

Shankaran is a distant relative of navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash. And the BoI has discovered that it was Commander V. Rana, overseeing the ocean management department in the war room, who had approached Shankaran for information on patrol boats that were meant for oil major Oil Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and the Border Security Force (BSF).

Intelligence agencies say Shankaran had not visited Delhi or touched base with the navy chief.

thepeninsulaqatar.com