CBI raids 19 places, across 4 cities, in Navy leak case

New Delhi, June 23 (UNI) The CBI today conducted raids at 19 places across four cities, including that of three Under-Secretaries in the Ministry of Defence, to unearth the 'larger conspiracy angle' into the sensational Naval War Room leak case and ongoing investigations into the 'sneaking out' of documents from the Air Defence Directorate.

The searches carried out at the residential and official premises of 14 persons, includes that of five Naval officials, a retired Naval Officer, two Army officials, three Under-Secretaries in the Ministry of Defence and two private persons, according to the CBI.

''The searches at 15 places in Delhi, two in Kolkata, one in Vishakhapatnam and one in Bhubaneswar were done to unearth the larger conspiracy angle of the investigations following the April 6 nationwide raids which led to the arrest of six persons in the case,'' said the CBI spokesman.

While the thrust was on the Naval War Room leak case, 'sneaking out' of sensitive documents from various directorates of the government including the Air Defence Directorate were also part of the searches made after more than two months of investigations, said the official.

''More than 500 pages of documents were seized during the searches.'' The raid was conducted on residences of people involved in the conspiracy, whose kingpin was Kulbhushan Parashar and key associates Ravi Shankaran and Abhishek Verma, to leak classified information in exchange of gratification, he added.

While premises of Commanders H C Hanchimal, A K Pandey, S S Dhiman, B B S Jamwal, D K Swan and Commodore (retd) A K Patnaik along with Lt Colonel S S Choudhary and Major Devendra Sharma were searched, the three Under-Secretaries whose places were raided are Prem Shankar Mehra, R S Dhudani and H S Bhatia.

The other two were Abhishek Verma, whose name popped up in several defence deals and a Chartered Accountant Sushil Bagheria.

While six persons have been arrested so far, Ravi Shankaran, kin of Naval Chief Arun Prakash, said to be hiding in United Kingdom, has been declared a proclaimed offender.

UNI AN VD KN2004