In a significant move, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested a serving Indian Navy officer along with two retirees in connection with the leak of confidential information related to the modernization of a Kilo-class submarine. Top government sources told ANI that following developments last month, the Indian Navy also ordered a high-level inquiry under Vice Admiral and Rear Admiral to probe the leak of information and ways to prevent any such incident in future.
Sources said that after receiving inputs from the agencies concerned, the CBI arrested a serving naval officer of the rank of Commander (Lt Col equivalent in the Army) who gave unauthorized information related to the Kilo-class submarine modernization project to the currently retired officers. He is now posted in Mumbai.
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They said the CBI was questioning several other serving officers who were in touch with the arrested officers. Defense sources said the Indian Navy is assisting in the ongoing probe by the central agency and is sending its personnel for questioning by the investigating officers. Top officials of the government, including agencies looking after national security, have also been briefed about the status of the investigation.
Sources said that as soon as the matter was brought to the notice of top Navy officials, they constituted a five-member team headed by the Vice Admiral and launched a parallel probe to probe the matter and stop any possible information leak in the force. Sources said the investigating agencies are monitoring the movements of a large number of ex-servicemen of the three services, which has led to arrests in the case. He said more arrests are possible as he has got some more inputs.
Sources said the central agency is also probing the hardware and date accessed by the arrested officer in its official capacity and there are chances of it leaking to more external agencies. In recent times, there have been several cases where defense personnel have been compromised to leak information to suspected Pakistani agencies.
