Info leak: 3 Navy officers to be sacked
Three Indian Navy officers who posted critical operational details of warships on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter against service norms in September 2011 are all set to be sacked.
Another colleague of theirs, who too had indulged in such online activity, is being censured with a letter of severe displeasure valid for five years by Indian Navy Chief Admiral D K Joshi.
Their cases were examined by a Board of Inquiry and its proceedings, findings and recommendations against the officers were approved in August 2012, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told a Parliamentary Standing Committee.The details were mentioned in the committee’s report on the ‘Demand for Grants for 2013-14’ of the MoD presented to Parliament on Monday.
The Indian Navy headquarters, however, refused to divulge the names of the four officers. Sources said they were operationally active on Indian warships,including its lone aircraft carrier INS Viraat, when they posted the online content giving out details of the vessels’ location and their destination.
The location of a warship and its next port of call are service secrets that are generally not given out when the vessel is on an operational mission.When the committee was examining “growing indiscipline” in the three services, the MoD informed that the “case regarding divulging of secret information on social networking sites by four naval officers was reported in September 2011”.
“Three out of the four officers have been recommended for termination of services. Action for termination of services of three officers is under progress. The fourth officer is being censured (Letter of Severe Displeasure valid for a period of five years) by the Chief of Naval Staff,” the MoD said on the action taken against the erring officers.The ministry also mentioned the case of Commodore Sukhjinder Singh, the then Deputy Director General Quality Assurance (Warship Production) who was found in a compromising position with a Russian woman in a photograph that was passed on to the Indian Navy in April 2010.The MoD also informed the committee about three cases of stand-off between Army officers and the men they command since 2010.
Info leak: 3 Navy officers to be sacked - The New Indian Express