New Delhi, September 29
The Indian Navy today said that some of its key officials posted at the Naval Operations Directorate here had been found “culpable” of leaking out classified information for commercial interests.

Naval Headquarters has also given a goahead for “disciplinary action” against the three officers, who have been found guilty.

The Tribune had in August named the involvement of the three officers in the leaking of sensitive material from the Navy’s War Room. The report had pointed to the involvement of the Director of Naval Operations besides that of two other officers of the Commander level.

The Navy, in an official release here said that “a board of inquiry headed by Rear Admiral Ganesh Mahadevan has clearly established that there has been leakage of information of commercial value to unauthorised persons”. The Navy had in July discovered that the information on some computer disks containing classified information about Naval acquisitions had been leaked out to commercial parties. As part of the discovery the Navy had also seized a pen drive with loads of files containing information from its War Room. Although the Navy had initially denied any such incident but with the media reporting it extensively, the issue was finally accepted by Naval Headquarters.

The Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Arun Prakash, had reported the matter to the intelligence agencies also and the three officials had been interrogated by the officials from the Intelligence Bureau and RAW also.

In the official statement here though the Navy did not give any names of officers against whom disciplinary action had been recommended, three top officials manning the Directorate, Capt Kashyap Kumar and Commanders V. Rana and V.K. Jha, are understood to have figured in it and they had been asked to depose before the Board of Inquiry.

“It has identified the personnel as culpable of specific acts of commission and omission in the leakage,” the Defence Ministry statement said.

“The findings of the Board of Inquiry had been examined in detail at Naval Headquarters and it has been ascertained that some individuals had parted with information of commercial value primarily pertaining to qualitative requirement of equipment being procured by the Navy,” it said.

It said the information related to equipment like patrol boats, diving support craft, electronic chart displays, breathing air compressors and other such equipment. The statement said the proceedings of the Board of Inquiry had received detailed scrutiny by the directorates concerned at Naval Headquarters and forwarded to the Ministry of Defence.

“Considering the seriousness of this breach”, the statement said a detailed report along with action recommended against those culpable had been forwarded to the Ministry for initiation of action under Navy Act,1957, it said The three officers could now face Court Martial proceedings.