Missing file case: IAF committee gives clean chit to officials

New Delhi, Jan 17 (PTI) An internal probe committee ofthe Indian Air Force is understood to have given a clean chitto its officials in the case involving a missing ''secret file''which was found at a roadside here.

The Court of Inquiry (CoI) report into the incidentwas submitted to the Defence Ministry today and is believed tohave given a clean chit to IAF officials in the case, sourcessaid here.

The file was related to the offsets proposal of theover USD 11 billion 126 Medium-Multi-role Combat Aircraft(M-MRCA) acquisition, which is at a critical stage as the IAFhas submitted its final report after carrying out twoyear-long extensive field trials.

After the file was recovered from a roadside inKhelgaon area, two separate probes were ordered into theincident by both the Defence Ministry and the IAF.

After an initial probe into the incident, two seniorIAS officers had come under the scanner as the file was issuedin the name of a director-level official and was recoveredoutside the Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) guest-house inKhelgaon here, where an additional secretary-rank official wasresiding for the last three-four months.

Last week, Defence Minister A K Antony had said thatthe Ministry would take further action into the case afterreceiving the IAF report.

Earlier, downplaying the incident, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik had said the file didn''t have any "earth-shaking"content and it hardly had anything to do peripherally with theM-MRCA and was not going to affect the tender.