War Room leak accused shielded

New Delhi: Secret documents leaked from the Indian Navy's Directorate of Operations have shown how deep rooted is the rot inside the military establishment.

There was much mudslinging, blame-game and fingers were pointed to people right on top of the Naval hierarchy including navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash.

Never before in the history of independent India were allegations leveled against the country's armed forces and their top bosses so openly as they were during the investigation of this case.

However, as documents available with CNN-IBN indicate, there has been a concerted effort to protect the accused in the case.

"There is a larger conspiracy in the War Room Leak case which the CBI has found out," Spokesperson, Central Bureau of Investigation, G Mohanty said.

The investigating agency also came out with a statement soon after it conducted raids against 12 armed forces officers, including 10 Navy officers last week.

But the case got a new dimension after the raids.

Questions are now being raised about the intentions of the Navy and more significantly, against the Ministry of Defence.

Evidence shows that efforts were made to protect main accused Ravi Shankaran, a nephew of Naval Chief Arun Prakash's wife.

CBI says Shankaran is now hiding in London.

In an official press release on January 9, the Ministry of Defence said, "The matter was also investigated by the Intelligence Bureau. It was found that no other Naval officer, including the Chief of Naval Staff was involved.”

However, last week’s CBI raids clearly suggested that the press release was an effort to save select officers and prevent the truth from coming out

Later on March 21 this year, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee made a statement in Parliament, saying, "During the course of a Court of Inquiry held in May 2005 by Air Headquarters and it was established that a pen drive recovered from retired Lt Kulbhushan Parashar contained classified information."

But even this did not prevent Parashar, a close associate of Shankaran, to leave the country for London in the last week of March.

He was only arrested by CBI on April 5 upon his return.

According to Pranab Mukherjee, the Court of Inquiry was held in March 2005 and Shankaran - declared a proclaimed offender by court and hunted by the CBI - was named as main accused even then.

But that did not prevent the Indian navy to ask Shankaran's company Shanx Oceaneering to participate in a Navy's tender process in August 2005.

The raids carried out by the CBI have opened a can of worms that might severely dent the Indian Navy's reputation and boomerang on the tall claims made by the Ministry of Defence.

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