War room leak: Navy has evidence

Although the company had been blacklisted by the Headquarters since 1996, officers from the Naval war room were found to be dealing with Shankaran and his partner on the procurement of off-shore patrol craft. His firm was blacklisted after an explosion in the fuel tank on board a Navy ship nine years ago during a tank cleaning job undertaken by it.

After receiving the probe report from Rear Admiral Ganesh Mahadevan last Monday, the Naval Headquarters has sent letters to all three Naval Commands in Mumbai, Vizag and Kochi, asking them to debar all its officers from dealing with the firm and its owners. The letter says these ex-Navy officers were using ‘‘unethical means’’ to obtain information. The Navy is also considering judicial proceedings against Shankaran and his partner.

The Indian Express had first reported on August 24 that Shankaran is a relative of Admiral Prakash. The Navy had told this newspaper at the time that Shankaran was a “distant relative” of the Navy Chief. Shankaran is the nephew of Admiral Prakash’s wife. On learning that Shankaran was a suspect in the security breach, the Navy Chief formally made this known to Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The probe has found that Shankaran was directly responsible for using unethical means to procure sensitive information related to commercial purchases of the Navy, and his access to the highly-secured war room computers was through three officers who had been swung with monetary and other enticements. Data seized found an exchange of e-mails between Shankaran and the three officers. The probe has found that the three officers— DNO Capt Kashyap Kumar and Commanders V Rana and V K Jha — guilty of “gross misconduct and impropriety”.

Despite the wide publicity that the issue has received, the Navy has refused to come on record about the facts. The only fact established by the Navy at the time the breach came to light was that no operational data was stolen.