IndiaÂ’s premier investigating agency the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday arrested five people including three former naval officials in the NavyÂ’s War Room leak case, more than a month after the Defence Ministry handed over the probe to the investigating agency. At least 17 places were raided countrywide after the agency registered a case against nine people, including Ravi Shankaran, a kin of navy chief Admiral Arun Prakash, in connection with the case under the Officials Secrets Act. Three people, Kulbhushan Parashar, a retired Navy officer, VK Jha and Vinod Rana, were arrested late Wednesday night and early morning and two more people, Mukesh Bajaj and Raj Rani Jaiswal, were arrested from Pune on Thursday afternoon. While Parashar was arrested from the Indira Gandhi International Airport upon his arrival from London, Rana was nabbed from Dwarka in south west Delhi this morning and Jha was arrested from Muzaffarpur in Bihar. Parashar and Rana were produced before Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Maini at her residence, who remanded them to 14 days in CBI custody.
The others named in the war leak case include Kulbushan Parashar, Wing Cdr (r) S K Kohli and Wing Cdr (r) S Surbe. Places that were raided included the national capital, Goa, Chandigarh, Mumbai and Muzaffarpur. The Defence Ministry had asked the CBI on February 18 to probe the leaks from the naval headquarters, which had led to the sacking of three senior navy officials. The government had referred the case after reports suggested that the leaks pertained to a high-profile defence deal.