Five of 9 accused arrested in Naval War Room theft case

New Delhi, Apr 6 (UNI) Several months after the sensational 'pilfering' of classified Defence Ministry documents from the Naval War Room, the CBI has arrested five persons, including three former Naval officers, and raided 17 places across six cities.

Among those arrested include Lt Cdr (retd) Kulbhushan Parashar, who was picked from the IGI Airport soon after he landed here from London yesterday, according to CBI spokesman G Mohanty.

''While four places were raided in Delhi, 13 other places were searched in Mumbai, Chandigarh, Pune, Goa and Muzaffarpur (UP).'' The other four arrested are ex-Naval Commanders Virender Rana (Delhi) and Vinod Kumar Jha (Muzaffarpur) who were arrested yeterday along with two civilians Mukesh Bajaj and Rajrani Jaiswal (both arrested from Pune today), he said.

''The other accused have been asked to join investigations.'' The searches yield several incriminating documents, he added.

''Among searches conducted at 17 locations, mostly at the residences of the accused included that of a Mumbai based chartered accountant and the factory premises in Mumbai and Goa of another accused.'' In total, nine persons have been made accused in the case under the Official Secrets Act. Besides the five arrested, four others are Lt Cdr (retd) Ravishankaran, Wing Cdr (retd) S K Kohli, Ex Wing Cdr (IAF) Sambhajee L Surve and Ex Captain (Navy) Kashyap Kumar, said the CBI spokesman.

The FIR of the Defence Ministry mentions that three officers of the Indian Navy and another of the Indian Air Force along with retired officers and others conspired to trade-off classified documents and information of the Defence Ministry which affected the security of the country.

Of the three former Naval officers, two were produced before a local court here and sent to 14-day police custody.

UNI AN PA RAI1849