CBI fined Rs 10,000 in Navy war room leak case

The Central Bureau of Investigation has faced the ire of a special court which imposed Rs 10,000 cost on it for "unnecessarily" delaying the proceedings by not appointing a prosecutor in the 2006 Naval War Room leak case in which five persons, including three former naval officers and an ex-Wing Commander, face trial.

Special CBI Judge J P S Malik imposed the cost on the probe agency and issued a notice to its Superintendent of Police, who is dealing with the case, on this issue.

The court was annoyed as CBI has not yet appointed any prosecutor to represent its case in which the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi had earlier appointed Rajiv Mohan as Special Public Prosecutor (SPP).

The court said that on October 13, 2014, advocate Rajiv Mohan had informed it that he has resigned from the regular cadre of National Capital Territory, Delhi, and since he was appointed SPP in the case by Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, notification for appointing a new SPP was yet to be issued.

"Till date, no Special Public Prosecutor has been appointed on behalf of CBI nor it is decided that proceedings shall be conducted by a Public Prosecutor on the regular cadre, of CBI.”

"Proceedings are being delayed unnecessarily because of inaction on the part of CBI. Costs of Rs 10,000 is imposed on CBI to be deposited with DLSA," the judge said, directing that the copy of the order be sent to CBI Director Ranjit Sinha.

Former Navy officer Kulbhushan Prashar, former naval commander Vijender Rana, sacked naval commander V K Jha, former IAF Wing Commander Sambha Jee L Surve and arms dealer and Delhi-based businessman Abhishek Verma are facing trial in the case for the offence of criminal conspiracy under IPC and under various provisions of Official Secrets Act.

The court, which had earlier fixed November 12 as the next date of hearing, cancelled it and adjourned the matter to November 26 for further proceedings.

The court is now recording the statements of prosecution witnesses in the case.

While Prashar, Surve, Rana and Jha are on bail, Abhishek Verma is lodged in jail and the court extended his judicial custody till November 26.

The court had earlier framed charges after the five accused pleaded not guilty and claimed trial.

The court had on July 31 ordered framing of charges against the accused. The court had said charges of spying by obtaining secret documents, wrongful communication of information and abetment of offences under the OSA have been prima facie made out against them.

The charge of criminal conspiracy under IPC was also framed against the accused by the court.

Prime accused Ravi Shankaran is still absconding and has been declared a proclaimed offender by the court.

The 2006 Navy War Room leak case involves leaking of over 7000 pages of defence information of sensitive nature from the Naval war room and air defence headquarters, having a direct bearing on national security.

The accused in the case have been chargesheeted by CBI for "conspiring" to commit offences under the OSA.

CBI had filed the first charge sheet on July 3, 2006 against Shankaran and four ex-defence officials.

In its second charge sheet, the agency had indicted Verma for allegedly conspiring to obtain the defence documents.

Verma was handling Indian affairs of Altas group of industries and had allegedly received remittances to the tune of Rs 6.5 crore, ostensibly for paying bribes to defence personnel for obtaining information of various purchases to be made by the military, the charge sheet had said.

The Atlas group of companies had submitted bids to supply communication equipment required by the armed forces but none of the contracts had been finalised, CBI had said.

CBI had registered the case on March 20, 2006, on a reference from the Defence Ministry and after scrutiny of report of the inquiry held by the Indian Air Force against Surve and the Board of Inquiry conducted by the Indian Navy.

Prashar was arrested at the airport here on April 5, 2006, on his return from London, following which nationwide searches had been carried out at 20 premises of the six accused. He was later on granted bail.