2 ex-Naval commanders seek bail in Navy War room leak case

NEW DELHI: Two former Navy Commanders, arrested for their alleged roles in the 2006 Naval war room leak case, on Wednesday sought bail from the Delhi High Court arguing they have been in jail for nearly six years without any trial due to non-framing of charges.

"Accused Vijender Rana (sacked Naval Commander) is in jail since his arrest on April 5, 2006, and moreover, the charges against him and other five accused are yet to be framed by the lower court," counsel for Rana told Justice Suresh Kait.

The bail applications of Rana and Kulbushan Parashar, former Navy Commanders, are pending before the high court for the last two years, their lawyers said while seeking urgent hearing of their pleas.

Besides Rana and Parashar, other accused in the case are sacked Naval Commander V K Jha, former IAF Wing Commander S L Surve, businessman Abhishek Verma and former Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash's relative Ravi Shankaran who has been declared a proclaimed offender.

They have been chargesheeted under 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC to commit offence under the Officials Secret Act for allegedly conspiring to leak in 2006 about 7000 pages of documents having sensitive defence information from the Naval war room and air defence headquarters, which have a direct bearing on national security.

The counsel for Rana said the other accused, except Shankaran and Parashar, have been granted bail by the high court. "The bench headed by Justice S Muralidhar, while denying bail to me in 2009, had observed that if the trial court does not pronounce the order on framing of charges by July 31, 2009, then I have a good chance of getting bail," the lawyer said.