War room leak: CBI raids 17 places

In a nationwide swoop in the Navy's War Room leak case, the Central Bureau of Intelligence has arrested five persons including three former naval officials, more than a month after the Defence Ministry handed over the probe to the investigating agency.

The raids in 17 places were conducted after the agency registered a case against nine people including Ravi Shankaran, a kin of Navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash, in connection with case under the officials secrets act. While three persons -- Kulbhushan Parashar, a retired Navy officer, V K Jha and Vinod Rana -- were arrested by the CBI late on Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, two more persons -- Mukesh Bajaj and Raj Rani Jaiswal -- who are alleged to have been involved in the case were arrested from Pune this afternoon.

While Parashar was arrested from Indira Gandhi International Airport upon his arrival from London, Rana was nabbed from Dwarka in South West Delhi this morning and Jha was arrested from Muzzafarpur in Bihar. Parashar and Rana were produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Maini at her residence, who remanded them to 14 days of CBI custody.

Jha was being brought here after his transit remand was taken from Muzzafarpur. The others named in the war leak case include Kulbushan Parashar, Wing Cdr (retired) S K Kohli and Wing Commabder (retired) S Surbe.

Raids were conducted at places including the national capital, Goa, Chandigarh, Mumbai and Muzzafarpur.

(With PTI Inputs)