Ravi Shankaran sold navy’s purchase plans for 20 years

Ravi Shankaran, 46, a key accused in the sensational war room leak case, may have sold Indian Navy’s secret equipment purchase plans for the next 20 years, a probe has revealed.

The ex-navy commander and nephew of former naval chief Arun Prakash’s wife was arrested by UK Police on April 21 and could
be extradited to India soon.

Shankaran was granted conditional bail, but was soon taken back into custody as he failed to fulfill the conditions, it is learnt.

“We had received intimation about Shankaran’s arrest on April 29. He was arrested under the Extradition Act, 2003, UK, and produced before a court the same day. We are pressing the UK authorities through the Indian mission in London for assistance in his extradition,” a senior CBI officer said.

DNA had first exposed the war room leak on July 31, 2005. The navy had found in a probe that several of its serving and retired officers and that of the air force and the army and bureaucrats were involved in leaking classified information relating to its planned purchase of a wide range of sophisticated equipment from the directorate of naval operations, or the war room.

A CBI probe found that Shankaran, who was running a private firm after quitting the navy, and Abhishek Verma, an arms dealer, were the key figures in the scandal. Vijender Rana and Kulbhushan Parashar, both former naval commanders, were the main conduits in the smuggling of the classified information.

The probe revealed that Shankaran, who had quit the navy before the war room leak was exposed, sold the classified information to commercial firms. “Shankaran had left India before CBI registered a case. Initial investigations revealed he escaped in November 2005,” the CBI officer said.

Other persons accused in the scandal were arrested in April 2006. Look-out notices against Shankaran were issued to all immigration checkposts in India on April 10, 2006, followed by nonbailable warrants by a trial court on April 21, 2006. After CBI discovered that he had fled India, requests for issuing a red corner notice were made to Interpol. Shankaran’s passport was revoked on May 1, 2006.

A charge sheet was filed by CBI on July 3, 2006, and on its provisional arrest request, a UK court issued warrants against Shankaran on March 30, 2007. Later, the agency forwarded a formal extradition request to the Indian high commissioner in London on May 9, 2007.