Navy war leak case: All you need to know about Ravi Shankaran

A London court on Wednesday turned down the plea filed by Ravi Shankaran, a key accused in the Navy War Room leak case opposing the Indian government’s plea to exradite him. Rejecting his petition, the District judge Nicholad Evans at the Westminster Magistrates Court in London said that Shankaran had been presented with no evidence to prove there wasn’t a “case to answer”.

Here is all you need to know about him:

* Lieutenant (retd) Ravi Shankaran, is a decorated deep sea diver who left the navy in mid ’90s. He is the nephew of former Navy Chief Arun Prakash.

* Shankaran retired from the force citing medical reasons and floated his own company ‘Shank Ocean Engineering’, a naval supplies company.

* He is the prime accused in the 2005 Navy War Room leak case, one of the most high-profile espionage cases in the country.

* It is alleged that Shankaran was to receive crucial defence documents from the Directorate of Naval operations (Navy war room) in New Delhi. However, they were intercepted by air force intelligence from the house of wing commander S L Surve.

* The intercepted documents reportedly dealt with Indian defence purchases and the country’s defence preparedness plan.

* Between 2005 and 2006, Shankaran managed to give the CBI the slip and was believed to have been travelling in countries like France, Italy and Denmark.

* Treated as absconding, on 1 May 2006, the CBI, which had already got a non-bailable warrant and a look out notice issued against Shankaran, approached Interpol to get a red corner notice issued against Shankaran.

* In April 2010, Ravi Shankaran surrendered in London to British authorities and was arrested on the basis of a non-bailable arrest warrant issued by a court in Delhi.

* A court in Westminster began hearing his extradition petition and on 30 December 2011 the London Court held that prima facie there was a case against Shankaran, but it also allowed him to refute the same at the next hearing.

* On 27 March 2013, the court rejected Shankaran’s petition against extradition. District judge Nicholad Evans at the Westminster Magistrates Court in London said that Shankaran had been presented with no evidence to prove there wasn’t a “case to answer”.

* The District Judge has now sent the case to the UK Home Secretary Theresa May, who will decide on ordering Shankaran’s extradition to India.

via FirstPost

Army Colonel arrested in Manipur with drugs worth Rs 15 crore

Colonel Ajay Chaudhary

An Indian Army Colonel was today detained at Pallel, about 60 km from Manipur, with Rs. 15-crore worth pseudoephedrine drug. The officer, Ajay Chaudhary, has been posted as Public Relations Officer (PRO), Defence, at Imphal for the past four years.

Six more people have been detained along with Mr Chaudhary, including a member of his staff who is a soldier in the Territorial Army.

They were carrying tablets of different brands in three vehicles towards Moreh, the border town, to be smuggled out to Myanmar were pseudoephedrine is in great demand as a speed drug. The vehicles were packed with tablets, to the roof.

Pseudoephedrine is used as a nasal decongestant. It is abused as a stimulant and causes the heartbeat and blood pressure to rise rapidly, promoting wakefullness and sudden burst of energy.

The Defence Ministry said it is examining the case.

via NDTV

Army’s live artillery shells found unaccounted

Three boxes containing a set each of potent artillery shells apparently belonging to the Indian Army were discovered strewn about near a railway track in southwest Delhi on Friday evening, police said.

Police recovered the said consignment after a passerby alerted the local control room about their presence near the Naraina Vihar railway tracks around 11pm, said Ravi Shankar, additional DCP (southwest).

“Only one of the three wooden boxes, which were later found to contain 138 mm artillery shells, was open.” a senior army official said, on condition of anonymity.

According to police, numbers, stamps and other paraphernalia on the boxes led them to believe that these were the property of the Indian Army which was then contacted even as a team of the local Bomb Disposal Squad (BDS) rushed to the spot and cordoned off the area.

A team of army officials then reached and took the said boxes in possession. An army spokesperson said they had launched an enquiry into the matter.

“Initial enquiry has revealed that these were meant to be transported to a location which we cannot disclose from the Central Ordnance Depot (COD) located in the Naraina Vihar area. We are trying to get to the bottom of the matter,” the Army official said.

Meanwhile, the police, on their part, have registered a criminal case under section 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC against unknown persons at the Naraina police station.

via Hindustan Times.

Video – Why should army men be tried in civilian courts?

Lawyer Vrinda Grover cites three reasons on why she feels court martial is just a hoodwink to escape the wrath of civilian law.

Indian Army abandoned soldiers’ bodies in LoC incident – Ajai Shukla

Video – Rape is used as a weapon by Indian Army: Arundhati Roy

Prominent Indian writer and human rights activist, Arundhati Roy has said that Indian army and police are using rape as a weapon against people in Kashmir and parts of India like Manipur.

Speaking on the issue of Delhi rape incident during a media interview in New Delhi, she said, “When rape is used as means of domination by the Upper Caste, army and police, it is not even punished.”

She said that rape was ‘legitimately’ being used as “there are laws which protect them when they do it.”

Arundhati Roy questioned why the Indians did not demand death punishment for the perpetrators of such crimes in occupied Kashmir.

“Rape is seen as a matter of feudal entitlement in many parts of India, and this case has come to light because the woman victim belongs to an affluent middle class,” she added.

Arundhati Roy said that attitudes towards women needed to change in India, because a change in the law only will protect middle class women, but “the violence against other women who are not entitled will continue”.

-via Kashmir Media Service

Army porn scandal: Major posts videos of Colonel & wife on adult sites

In a reflection of growing rift between the army officers and their juniors, a Major of Army’s Aviation Unit reportedly posted sexually explicit videos and pictures of his senior officer with wife on porn sites.

The pictures and videos along with the phone number of officer’s wife are reported to have been uploaded on as many as 19 pornographic site of which the longest video was learnt to be of three minutes, fifty seconds.

The aggrieved officers is learnt be at the ranks of Lieutenant Colonel, a flight commander of the Bathinda-based 668 Reconnaissance and Observation Squadron.

The report claimed the role of the other officers in the unit is also under scrutiny with the possibility of the incident being part of a larger racket not being ruled out.

Although this incident is being stated as a first of its kind in Indian Army but Army officers in the past have been accused of uploading and filming child pornography as reported in the following video report:

Of late, there have been several incidents that have come to the fore that suggested growing harrassment of army officers by their seniors.

Recently, a report submitted by Defence Minister AK Antony claimed that over 10,000 soldiers took voluntary retirement from the Indian Army last year which might have been as a result of the growing discord between officers and jawans under the hierarchical system.

In August, an Army jawan had climbed a 200-feet-high tower near the Ajmeri Gate railway station in New Delhi to protest against alleged harassment by the officer in his Engineers Regiment.

Earlier, there were reports of scuffle between the jawans and Army officers following which the Defence Ministry had to intervene.

-via Daily Bhaskar

DRDO spending crores, but no positive outcome

Bhupendra Chaubey.

The Defence Research and Development organisation, country’s premier body for development of defence related technology, has allegedly spent crores of rupees in the name of expenditure on technology, but there has been no positive outcome.

A top secret audit of DRDO ordered by Defence Minister AK Antony has revealed that there is virtual lack of transparency in decision making mechanism in the organisation, which was created to look after country’s defence needs. With a budget of over Rs 10,000 crore DRDO has enjoyed full mandate from successive governments for over six decades.

The audit accessed by CNN-IBN reveals that financial sanctions are being split so that they don’t have to go to higher authorities. Programme for development of main battle tank Arjun was sanctioned at Rs 69.99 crore. However, the entire programme was split into smaller sub-heads so that higher ups within the system could be avoided.

The fact that projects under DRDO have been delayed extensively is well known. Now the report also raises questions about how the DRDO is taking decisions.

Product support and product improvement of NAG weapon system was sanctioned at a cost of Rs 28.35 crore, despite the fact that the Cabinet Committee on Security approved similar programme was still in the pipeline.

The cost of UAV and aerostat was brought down just to ensure that no higher authority could question the financial approval given.

Several split sanctions were also issued for renovation of DRDO Bhawan while unauthorised sanction of Rs 49.15 crore to develop vehicle testing facility from public accounts mainly for civilian use was also granted.

The report further says that a project for development of satellite signal monitoring was sanctioned at a cost of Rs 29.96 crore without any formal requirement from the defence services. While the project was still on, a sanction of Rs 24.5 crore was given for procurement of a similar technology.

There have been several arbitrary costing of products under garb of development like sanction of Rs 14.5 crore for development of four stroke cylinder engine technology. But the parties chosen by the DRDO didn’t have adequate research capabilities. The report goes on to say that the DRDO has facilitated entry of foreign companies in certain areas and the projects being undertaken are not for development but for the entry of foreign vendors.

The report says that Dr VK Saraswat gave an improper approval for a grant of Rs 2.8 crore to a society which he heads himself. Further scrutiny even revealed that the body which got the aid didn’t have expert manpower.

Several irregularities have also been detected in appointment of chairpersons of different organisations with huge amounts being spent on it.

However, the defence minister has refused to react to these findings.

On the other hand the DRDO has refuted the allegations.

“DRDO strongly refutes observations made in the report and is in the process of compiling its responses despite the fact that the findings of audit already stand vitiated. Since laid down procedure was not followed and the report was issued without authorisation, the matter is under examination and correspondence with the concerned. All laid down procedures are being followed by DRDO in a transparent manner and interests of the State are the sole consideration during the process of decision making,” said DRDO Director Ravi Gupta.

Now through this report questions are being raised about how DRDO is taking decisions.

-via IBNLive

Another molestation… now by Army jawans

Close on the heels of molestation of a girl in Guwahati that generated national outcry, a teenager met the same fate allegedly at the hands of army jawans in Assam’s Sibsagar district, police said today.

A team of army personnel headed by Lance Naik were on patrol duty near a forest in Dolopa where they spotted a teenaged girl collecting firewood, Sibsagar additional superintendent of police S K Dutta told PTI.

When Naik and his team allegedly tried to molest her in the forest, the girl created a furore which was heard by the nearby local villagers who rushed to the spot and managed to free the girl from the armymen clutches, Dutta said.

The army personnel posted in the Nitaipukhuri camp managed to flee from the spot.

The area is flood prone and militant-infested for which the camp of the army was set up.

-via DNA.

Army officer flouts aviation safety norms, travels in plane’s cockpit