The Delhi High Court Monday issued notices to the defence ministry, Central Bureau of Investigation, the Intelligence Bureau and five others on a petition filed by former naval officer Vinod Kumar Jha, challenging his dismissal from service on espionage charges.
A division bench of Justices M K Sharma and Reva Khetrapal asked the respondents to file their replies within four weeks and posted the matter for further hearing to May 15.
In a petition filed through his counsel Sukhjinder Singh, Vinod Kumar claimed that his dismissal on October 28, 2005 for allegedly leaking out war room secrets was unfair, illegal and arbitary. Kumar, who served as a commander in the navy until his dimsissal, alleged that he had been made a scapegoat in the espionage activities "presumably because of involvement of higher-up-officials of the navy and their relatives.
Interestingly, Kumar claimed that the beneficiary of the alleged information leaked to one Shankaran was none other than nephew of the Chief of Naval Staff and the latter stage-managed a board of inquiry to save the skin of his relative.
Kumar in his petition gave graphic details of the alleged third degree torture meted out to him by a joint team comprising officials of the naval headquarters, CBI and IB resulting in his developing health complications.
The petitioner alleged that the naval authorities without conducting a court martial inquiry into the allegations made him a scapegoat and dismissed him from service.
Kumar was earlier dismissed from service by the naval authorities for allegedly leaking out classified computerised data from the war room of the naval headquarters. Notices were also issued by the court to the chiefs of the three services, besides the director of the naval intelligence.
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