Panel blasts defence ministry over Purulia incident

The parliamentary committee inquiring into the Purulia arms-dropping case has lambasted the defence ministry for its failure to act on the advance intelligence tip-off.

"We consider it a serious lapse on the ministry's part,'' the government assurances committee said in its latest report to the Lok Sabha.

In December 1995, a low flying Russian aircraft had dropped a cache of arms in West Bengal's Purulia. The intelligence agencies had warned the ministry earlier about the proposed drop, but it did not taken any preventive action. Nor did it share the information with the director general of civil aviation. "The committee is not convinced by the attempts of the defence secretary to 'exulpate' the Air Force in this matter,'' the report stated.

"While it is true the Air Force does not have radar surveillance throughout the country, and it is not its function to monitor the civilian aircraft crisscrossing the country's airspace, it could have coordinated its efforts with the DGCA and tried to track down the unscheduled flight,'' the committee observed.

It also diagreed with the defence secretary's view that it was a case of aerial arms smuggling and not a distinct threat from air. The defence secretary was trying to play down the seriousness of the incident, the report said.

''The plane could have dropped bombs on some other selected target. The committee presumes this fact is known to the defence secretary,'' the report noted.

As part of its inquiry, the committee had called representatives of the ministries of home, defence and civil aviation to give evidence. It found alarming shortcomings in the functioning of these departments in respect of sharing the received intelligence tip-off.

The committee further noted the agencies showed an uncanny skill in blaming each other for not being able to prevent the arms-dropping.

UNI