New Delhi: The Defence Ministry on Wednesday said
the Navy has put in stringent Information Technology security
measures to avoid situations like the Naval war-room leak case
in the future.
"The Naval war-room leak in 2005 was the only such case
in the past 10 years. In order to avoid such situations,
stringent IT security measures have been put in place in the
Directorate of Naval Operations, including the Naval
war-room," Defence Minister A K Antony told Rajya Sabha in a
written reply to members` queries.
In addition, Antony said, the Navy had an elaborate
counter-intelligence set up to provide cover to all ships,
units and establishments.
A case in the Naval war-room leak episode was registered
on March 20, 2006, against certain dismissed officers of the
Navy and Indian Air Force including retired Lieutenant Ravi
Shankaran and presently the trial is pending.
"The accused Ravi Shankaran is absconding...His passport
has been revoked by the Ministry of External Affairs and a red
corner notice has been issued against him on May 12, 2006. An
extradition request was sent to the UK on June 14, 2007 and
Head of NCB, International Criminal Police Organisation,
London on February 19, 2008," Antony said.
To another query, he said the Western Naval Command had
cancelled an examination for appointment of 175 clerks due to
question paper leak and five persons, including a service
officer and two civilian officers of Navy, have been arrested
in this connection.
Antony, to a query, said Navy had made a request for
handing over 5,28,575 sqm Grandi Island (large) owned by a
private party and 2,78,525 sqm Pikene Island owned by Goa
government.
"These islands are located at a distance of less than
four km in the landing funnel of Dabolim airport. The proposal
has been made in order to address the security concerns
related to aircraft operations from Naval Air Station at
Dabolim and the case being processed as per existing
regulations," he said.
The Goa government had not granted a No Objection
Certificate so far nor any report from the state government
had been received by his Ministry in this regard, he said.
PTI
