Washington, April 3
An Indian, heading a US electronics supplier, and three of his compatriots employed in the firm have been indicted for allegedly exporting sensitive US missile technology to India in violation of laws.

The indictments that were unsealed yesterday also alleged conspiracy by unnamed Indian government officials in circumvention of the US export control law.

The indictment slapped charges against Parthasarathy Sudarshan-led electronics firm, Cirrus Inc, operating in Singapore, South Carolina and Bangalore, of working as an agent of the Indian Government to obtain sensitive missile and weapons technology for its military programmes. Four of the company officials, all of them Indians, including founder Sudarshan, were charged.

Sudarshan, who was arrested on March 23, is still in custody and has been brought to Washington D.C. from South Carolina by US marshalls for his arraignment before a district court judge later in the day. Mythili Gopal, the company's international sales manager, was also arrested in South Carolina on March 23, but was released after her court appearance.

Two others were indicted and have not been arrested. They have been identified as A. K. N. Prasad, the head of Indian operations for Cirrus at its office in Bangalore, and Sampath Sundar, the company's operations director, who worked out of Singapore.

The indictment also has a number of unidentified co-conspirators, including an official of the Indian mission in Washington. It indicates that the defendants were buying equipment for three Indian government agencies — the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Bharat Dynamics and the Aeronautical Development Establishment.

The indictment details the alleged transactions to have taken place between 2003 and 2006.

The US justice department has charged that agencies of the Indian Government participated in a conspiracy to sidestep United States export regulations and obtain secret weapons technology from American companies over several years.

The defendants have been charged with violating the United States Export Administration Act, which prohibits the export of dual-use technologies, those with both military and non-military uses, without approval from the commerce department attesting that the technology will be used only for non-military purposes.

Deputy spokesman of the state department Tom Casey has been quoted in a media report as saying that the indictments served by the FBI is an enforcement issue that began earlier than the efforts to reach the civilian nuclear understanding and as such will not impact the initiative.

However, Congressman Edward Markey said: “If the Indian Government has attempted to circumvent US export controls over sensitive missile technology, as is alleged in the indictment, then it has violated its explicit agreements to become a responsible international actor in the context of non-proliferation.”

“India has also long touted its strong military and space-launch cooperation with Iran, which raises the possibility that the sensitive US missile technologies India has misappropriated may wind up benefiting Tehran.

“This will be absolutely unacceptable, and it will be treated as such by the Congress....This is not only an indictment of individuals for breaking export control law, but also a blistering indictment of the Bush Administration’s judgement” the Massachussetts lawmaker said in a statement. — PTI