As New Delhi begins working on its response to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation’s indictment for the alleged illegal transfer of dual-use items to Indian defence and space entities, two officials from the Defence Research Development Organisation have come under the scanner. One of them is Manik Mukherjee, who until last year, was a counsellor at the Indian Embassy in Washington. The FBI has alleged that Cirrus Electronics, a firm based in US with offices in Singapore and Bangalore, transferred Intel i980 microprocessors — a dual-use item requiring licenses — for the Tejas Light Combat Aircraft project. The transfer, the indictment says, involved two “co-conspirators” who are officials of the Indian government. One of them was then posted in the Indian Embassy. The other is claimed to be an official of DRDO’s Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE) and while his identity is still not clearly established, the FBI has submitted as evidence, e-mails between Cirrus, Mukherjee and one S. Janarthanan of the ADE. Mukherjee was Counsellor (Defence Technology) at the Indian Embassy in Washington and, according to FBI, he undertook a visit to Rochester Electronics Inc, Newburyport, Massachusetts, in February 2004 to witness the testing of 380 i960 microprocessors. He apparently cleared 377 of these and is said to have signed an “Inspection & Acceptance Certificate on behalf of Government of India.” When contacted, Mukherjee declined to comment. “I don’t know what the documents are and I cannot comment on this issue,” he told The Sunday Express. It’s, however, learnt that the first reaction from DRDO to the Ministry of External Affairs is that it has done nothing illegal and has sought to distance itself from any violation by the company, in this case Cirrus and its head Parathasarathy Sudarshan. The FBI has alleged that the transfers were made without getting the mandatory licenses and against Arms Export Control Act.While DRDO is working on its detailed report to the MEA, top officials said that it’s going to argue that the Mukherjee’s visit to test and inspect the equipment was “pre-cleared” by US authorities concerned. As for the ADE official, who is said to have visited US to observe the second round of these tests, the defence is that he obtained a valid US visa. And that if Washington had any doubts, it should have addressed it at the time of providing these clearances for travel. As evidence to support its allegations against Mukherjee, the FBI has presented to the court e-mails sent from Cirrus Electronics head Parathasarathy Sudarshan — main accused who is now under arrest — to Mukherjee arranging his visit. On January 28, 2004, Sudarshan wrote to Mukherjee, with a copy to ADE’s Janarthanan.“We are happy to interact with you to carry out testing of 5962-90946-03-MYA devices.As far as timing of the testing, the Trillium tester to be used is being serviced this week and has a current backlog for the next two weeks. I can try to get this testing done on 2/9/04 (February 9) if needed, but the following week would be safer.”A top DRDO official, however, said the responsibility of ascertaining whether an item needs license or not rests with the company. In this case, ADE is said to have floated a global tender as the i960 microprocessors are out of production. Cirrus bid, won the contract and identified Rochester Electronics as one of the companies that has license from Intel to manufacture this item. “Of course, we lay a condition to a test by DRDO officials before the item is purchased,” said the official. It is one of the jobs of the DRDO representatives in the Indian mission to observe these tests and clear the item for purchase. Now if the company violates any law, DRDO officials claim, they cannot be held responsible.Further, officials say, these microprocessors are, perhaps, part of the fly-by-wire flight control mechanism for which the ADE had reached an understanding with Lockheed Martin over a decade ago. This was to become part of the LCA. But this cooperation came to an abrupt end in the wake of sanctions following the 1998 nuclear tests and ADE is now trying to complete it through indigenous efforts.
