Naval War Room leak: CBI fined for delaying proceeding

A court here has slapped a fine of Rs.10,000 on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for delaying the proceedings by not appointing a prosecutor in the 2006 Naval War Room leak case.

Special CBI Judge J.P.S. Malik Tuesday imposed a fine of Rs.10,000 on the probe agency and said: "Proceedings are being delayed unnecessarily because of inaction on the part of CBI."

The court also issued notice to its Superintendent of Police, who is dealing with the case, on this issue and directed that the copy of the order be sent to CBI Director Ranjit Sinha.

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 Oct 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," the court said.

The court posted the matter for further hearing Nov 26.

The court Aug 8 framed charges under criminal conspiracy and various provisions of the Official Secrets Act against businessman Abhishek Verma and other accused, including Kulbushan Parashar, then Wing Commander S.L. Surve, then Commanders Vijender Rana, V.K. Jha and J.S. Kalra, and then Captain Salam Singh Rathore.

A case was registered March 2006 over the leak of about 7,000 pages of defence information of a sensitive nature from the Naval War Room and the air force headquarters.

It was registered on a reference from the defence ministry after an inquiry held by the Indian Air Force against Surve and the board of inquiry conducted by the Navy.