CDR (RETD ) JARNAIL SINGH KALRA Vs. CBI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) During the investigation of Naval War Room Leak case (RC 02 (A)/2006/ACU-IX), it came to light that retired Captain S.S. Rathore was in close contact of main accused Kulbhushan Parashar and was receiving illegal gratification for providing secret information and on 23rd June 2006, search was conducted at the residence of retired Captain S.S. Rathore and at other several places and during these searches, certain incriminating documents were recovered, which prima facie appear to be official and classified documents of the Ministry of Defence. It also transpired during the investigation that retired Captain S.S. Rathore had unauthorizedly obtained three classified documents of the Ministry of Defence from his Batch Mate and friend Cdr.(Retd.) J.S.Kalra, from Indian Navy and his friend Cdr. (Retd.) J.S. Kalra, i.e., the Petitioner who was working as Deputy General Manager, Customer Service, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL).

(2.) The three documents unauthorisedly passed on by the Petitioner to Retd. Capt. S.S. Rathore was classified as SECRET , i.e., they were not meant to be in public domain. The description of these three documents are as under:

(3.) During the investigation of this case, it was revealed that the copy of above said three secret documents remained in the possession of the Petitioner as he was acting as Liaison Officer of HAL with Ministry of Defence and in this regard, statements of the Planning Officer (CAP), Deputy Secretary (Aero), Senior Manager, Customer Services (HAL), etc. have been recorded.