New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday
declined bail to a security specialist of National Security
Council who allegedly passed on the country's vital secrets
including those on Indo-US nuclear deal to an American woman
diplomat.
The special cell of the Delhi police, which had
earlier arrested the accused Mukesh Saini along with system
analyast Shib Shankar Paul, alleged the latter had developed
"intimate" and "close relationship" with the American diplomat
Rosana Minschew to whom the secrets were passed on.
It was further alleged Saini had in return prevailed
upon the American diplomat to get him a job in the US
Microsoft company after obtaining voluntary retirement from
the highly sensitive secretariat of the National Security
Council.
According to the special cell of the Delhi police
which opposed the bail plea of Saini, raids at his house
resulted in seizure of several documents including the "draft
report of Indian nuclear doctrine" from the computer pen
drive.
"The documents are connected with the security matters
of the country and if the seized documents are passed onto an
unuathorised person or any foreign agent, these can be used
for purpose prejudicial to the safety or interest of the
state," the government told a bench of Justices D K Jain and T
S Thakur, in an affidavit.
The alleged racket came to light with the arrest of
Shib Shankar Paul on June 11, 2006 a senior system analyst
with the secretariat, who disclosed that he was introduced to
Rosana Minchew by Saini.
Subsequent raids on the house of Saini led to seizure
of several "official secrets" recorded in his personal
computer and pen drive, after which hbe was arrested.
Senior counsel K T S Tulsi, appearing for Saini,
sought bail for the accused on the ground that he was innocent
and was in jail for 42 months. He claimed Saini was a
"brilliant officer" who was falsely implicated.
However, the statement was rebuffed by the bench which
said "don't say that he was a brilliant officer and
implicated. If that was so, there would have been other
responsible officers in the department who would have stood up
for his defence," the bench said.
"Why were you (accused) having the documents when you
have already joined the Microsoft?" the bench said.
However, the bench said it would not like to pass any
further comment on the issue and instead examine the bail
plea along with the related petition filed by another accused
Ujjwal Das Gupta which would come up for hearing on January
28.
According to the documents submitted by the government,
Shib Shankar Paul had developed "intimate" and "close
relationshiip" with Rosana Minschew and used to meet her at
various popular food jaunts where the secrets were leaked.
Though Tulsi argued that Saini should be granted bail,
the apex court said since the charges and ramifications in the
case were serious it would not be proper to pass any immediate
relief to the accused.
Hence it said it would take up the plea at the next
date of hearing along with a connected matter.
Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam and counsel Wasim
Ahmed Quadri appeared for Delhi government.
PTI
First Published: Monday, December 14, 2009, 20:57