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CBI moves Centre to invoke Official Secrets Act in Naval leak case
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has approached the Centre for its approval on invoking stringent Official Secrets Act (OSA) in the Naval leak case involving a serving Commander and two retired Navy officers, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has approached the Centre for its approval on invoking stringent Official Secrets Act (OSA) in the Naval leak case involving a serving Commander and two retired Navy officers, people familiar with the development said on Tuesday.
They said the investigation has suggested that certain classified information was leaked by the accused persons, which makes it a fit case under OSA.
In this particular case, Union defence and law ministries are likely to examine the matter based on the available investigation details whether the Navy officers can be charged under the Colonial-era law or not. The OSA attracts imprisonment up to 14 years where the offence is committed in relation to any work of defence, arsenal, naval, military or air force establishment or station.
“Once the government gives a go-ahead, OSA will be invoked in the case,” said an officer, requesting anonymity.
Last Tuesday, the central agency had filed a charge sheet against six accused in the case – including Randeep Singh, retired Commodore; Satwinder Jeet Singh, retired Commander and serving Navy Commander, Ajit Kumar Pandey, posted at Western Naval Command headquarters, under prevention of corruption act and criminal conspiracy.
Randeep Singh and SJ Singh were arrested on September 3, when the espionage racket came to the light. The agency had recovered ₹2 crore cash from Randeep Singh during a raid at that time.
It was initially alleged that confidential information about the upgrade of Russian-origin Kilo-class submarines was leaked by accused persons. However, as reported by HT last week, the CBI probe has revealed that information in at least three more Navy projects may have been compromised.
A CBI document, reviewed by HT, has claimed that retired and serving Navy officials conspired to share “secret information of internal files for processing and passing of tender related to procurement and maintenance in different Indian Naval offices with the favoured firms/companies”.
It claims that SJ Singh, who was previously posted at the Directorate of Submarine Acquisition (DSMAQ), New Delhi, and took voluntary retirement from Navy on July 31 this year, “was leaking out internal information regarding operations/procurement from various Navy offices to Randeep Singh”.
CBI adds that Randeep Singh acted as a middleman in the case.
According to the CBI document, in August this year, “Randeep Singh asked for the main report of a meeting held in Navy office regarding the procurement of three Hulls”, to which SJ Singh affirmed to contact concerned Navy official and asked for illegal gratification.
It adds that a hard copy of the screenshot of the main report of the meeting held at the Navy office was handed over by SJ Singh to Randeep Singh at the latter’s residence.
The agency has already questioned several persons in the case and further investigation into the leak of information on other projects is going on.
