Navy officer sent secrets to Russian wife? Probe on

[sasi]

Navy officer sent secrets to Russian wife? Probe on - The Times of India
MUMBAI: A Board of Inquiry (BoI) the Indian Navy constituted a year ago is looking into whether a commander-level officer passed on classified information to his Russian wife, sources said. In 2011, when the officer wasin India, he communicated with his wife, who was in Russia, through a social networking site, sources said. It was suspected thathe may have passed on secrets in such interactions.
The BoI was constituted in January 2012 after the officer, who is attached to the Western Naval Command (WNC), Mumbai , was found to have the classified information on his office computer. The secrets were not supposed to be on the computer, sources said."The suspicion that some secrets had been passed through the computer was aroused and the Mumbai-based officer , along with two colleagues, was suspended ," said a source. The two allegedly knew the secrets were on the computer.
It is not known if the secrets on the office computer pertain to the aircraft carrier Vikramaditya, which is being refitted in Russia and is due to be delivered to India in six to seven months. In April 2011, the Centre had approved the sacking of another senior naval officer, Commodore Sukhjinder Singh, who had been involved in the $2.3 billion acquisition of Gorshkov (now Vikramaditya). There were fears of a 'honeytrap' after explicit pictures of Singh with a Russian woman had surfaced.
In the current case, the officer under scrutiny was one of three navy men - all commanderlevel officers- who were posted in 2011in Russia , where the Vikramaditya is being refitted. "The three officers were on deputation," said a navy source. "The officer in question met a Russian girland fell in love, which resulted in their marriage."The officer and his colleagues later returned to India and his wife visited here once.
When the wife was in Russia, the married couple kept in touch through a social networking site."Later the navy's technicalbranch found some classified information on his office computer," said the source. "After a thorough scrutiny, it was found that he was in touch with his wife through the website." All three suspended men are now facing a BoI, which is yet tocomplete its work, the source said. The Russian woman could be a spy, sources added. Navy officials were unwilling to discuss the issue. "The matter is before the BoI. We don't want to say anything unless the inquiryis completed," said Narendrakumar Vispute, chief public relations officer, ministry of defence.The Vikramaditya was formerly the Admiral Gorshkov, which the Russians had decommissioned . The warship is being upgraded and refitted for India. It willhave the capacity for 40 fighter jets, while India's current largest aircraft carrier, INS Virat, can carry just 10 jets.
"We gave a contract to a foreign company to refit the warship for us," said the source. "The data about the secret installations and other equipment is classified. The navy officer who was in touch with his wife could have passed on some information, which could bemisused." Authorities earlier issued instructions to personnel asking them not to discuss information like the location of a warship and its systems over social networking websites.
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[Ray]

Court allows Army officer to marry foreign citizen

The Bombay High Court on Friday ensured that the love story of Major Yogesh Chandra Sayankar, who wanted to quit the Indian Army to marry a US citizen, has a happy ending. "Let them get married," Chief Justice Mohit Shah said, giving final orders on Sayankar's petition seeking permission to marry Shruti Kulkarni, who holds a Person of Indian Origin status, as she was unwilling to renounce her US citizenship after marriage.

Under the Army Order, a serving officer has to seek permission before marrying a foreign national and the spouse should renounce foreign citizenship and apply for Indian citizenship.

However, as Kulkarni refused to do so, Sayankar sought premature retirement. He also agreed to pay Rs 2,50,000 spent on him by the Army during his training programme from June 2005 to May 2006. But the Army refused to let him resign prematurely.

Court allows Army officer to marry foreign citizen - Indian Express

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Our courts know best how to stand vigil on the frontiers!

 

[Ray]

Should Army officers be allowed to marry foreigners?

A disturbing trend of playing to a liberal gallery is leading a section of the judiciary to give low weightage to rules regarding such a sensitive service as the Indian Army. Recently, the Karnataka High Court dismissed a writ appeal by the Army challenging a single judge order directing it to allow an officer to resign in order to marry a foreigner. On November 21, 2012, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Vikramajit Sen dismissed the appeal, told the Army not to behave like a 'khaap panchayat', and imposed costs of Rs 75,000 on the service.

Briefly, Major Vikas Kumar, serving in the Corps of Signals and a resident of Koramangala, Bangalore, sought permission to marry Arnila Rangamali Gunaratne, a Sri Lankan national residing in the same area. The Army rejected his application on September 19, 2011 and refused to discharge him from service to facilitate the marriage. He approached the High Court where Justice BS Patil on December 7, 2011 directed the Army to consider his application and relieve him from service. The Army ignored the directions and Kumar again approached the court. On June 18, Justice HN Nagamohan Das quashed the Army order rejecting his application.

The Army challenged this order, but a division bench headed by the Chief Justice held that the Army could not have refused discharge to the Major as directed by the single judge. Counsel for the Union Government said the Army did not consider the Major's application as the girl had not consented to taking up Indian citizenship, so the Major could lose terminal benefits. Untimely termination of service involves refunding the entire cost of training incurred by the State.

While not quibbling over the legal merits of the case, one feels the bench took an unduly liberal approach to the issue. The Corps of Signals is an extremely sensitive wing handling communications and surveillance activities. Yet the High Court saw nothing amiss in a serving officer of the rank of Major becoming intimate with a foreign national.

The Court showed disdain for the authorities ordering a probe into how the officer came into contact with a foreign national. This is surely the crux of the matter – how the officer was introduced to the lady; how the relationship grew into a desire for marriage; and whether any breach of security had taken place in the interregnum.

When the Army frowned on the relationship and refused to release the officer on grounds of a severe staff crunch (a well-known fact), the Chief Justice reprimanded the Army for acting like a 'khaap panchayat' saying, "We can't understand the Army's stand at all. This is most unfortunate for the man. One of India's Presidents, also the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces, was married to a foreigner".

This reference to the late KR Narayanan who married Ma Tint Tint of Burma while serving in the Foreign Office cannot be used to establish a convention or legal precedent that civilian or military officers of the Government of India can marry foreign nationals.

Unfortunately, under the Nehruvian dispensation, IFS officers closely aligned with the ruling elite have been permitted to marry foreign nationals and remain in service, too often holding senior and sensitive posts, something unheard of in other major world capitals. An equal number of serving officers have been denied permission to marry foreigners, on seemingly ad hoc grounds.

It cannot be accidental that all officers permitted to marry foreigners and remain in service were those who married citizens of Western nations, or their known client states. Permission was invariably denied to persons on the wrong side of Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain, despite the supposed Socialist leanings of first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Left-leaning intellectuals, who have dominated the public discourse in India, never highlight this anomaly because Marxism (in its varied strains) is a Western ideology and they derive their legitimacy from a coterie of academics and activists rooted in Western universities.

Thus, secularists, socialists, assorted leftists, human rights wallahs, jholawallahs et al are all creatures from the Western stable, with one thing in common – a deep fear and hatred of India's native civilisation and culture, and its taking its legitimate place in the public arena. Their internal struggles vis-à-vis each other have never been allowed to ignore this reality. In recent years, a section of the Judiciary has begun to seek approval from this gallery. Orders which undermine the famed discipline of the armed forces derive from this tendency.

In a similar recent case, Major Yogesh Chandra Madhav Sayankar of 60 Rashtriya Rifles (Naga), serving in Jammu & Kashmir, took the Chief of Army Staff, Director General of Military Intelligence, and others to court over permission to marry Shruti Kulkarni, a US citizen.

Denied permission to resign and marry a foreigner, he challenged the same under Article 226 of the Constitution. Major Sayankar had met Shruti Kulkarni while on vacation in Pune in 2009, through mutual friends, and they got engaged in December 2009. She was unwilling to renounce her American citizenship, so he sought release from service, presumably to settle with her in the US.

The Army argued in Court that the petitioner was a permanent commissioned officer in a service responsible for protecting the nation, and there is a severe deficiency in the cadre. If an officer is allowed to resign to marry a foreign national refusing to accept Indian citizenship, it may set an incorrect precedent. In future, officers could seek to resign to contest elections or form trade unions, which are unacceptable in the Armed Forces.

The petitioner in this case expressed willingness to reimburse the cost of his training, approximately Rs 3 lakh, and finally married against Army advice – a severe breach of discipline. In the circumstances, on March 25, 2011, a bench headed by Bombay High Court Chief Justice SJ Vazifdar asked the authorities to accept the officer's resignation.

Clearly, our contemporary environment does not favour old fashioned nationalism.

Should Army officers be allowed to marry foreigners? | Niti Central

 

[natarajan]

We should also have some vigil on politicians so that in future we wont get any maino

 

[sasi]

I think~Two yrs ago , Indian navy officier was killed in Russia due to some wrong doing in frigates!

 

[arya]

ufff wife's are so dangerous

 

[venkat]

Arya !!!! thats too bad!!!! say phirangi wives!!!!

 

[SPIEZ]

Russian wife

 

[Armand2REP]

India must cut all ties with Russia immediately!