Scorpene documents stolen, not leaked, says report

New Delhi/Mumbai, August 25

Documents relating to Indian submarines were stolen from French naval contractor DCNS and not leaked, a French government source said on Thursday, adding that the information published so far showed only operational aspects of the submarines.

Earlier, the Indian Navy said it has taken up the Scorpene document leak matter with France’s Directorate General of Armament (DGA) and has asked the French government to investigate the incident with "urgency" and share their findings with the Indian side.

"It is not a leak, it is theft," the source said. "We have not found any DCNS negligence, but we have identified some dishonesty by an individual."

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The source said the documents looked to have been stolen in 2011 by a former French employee who had been fired while providing training in India on the use of the submarines.

The documents were not classified and at this stage appeared to only focus on the operational elements of the submarines, the source said.

An internal audit of procedures to rule out any security compromise is also being undertaken, the Indian Navy said in a statement, a day after it stressed that the leak appears to be “from overseas and not in India”.

“The documents that have been posted on the website by an Australian news agency have been examined and do not pose any security compromise as the vital parameters have been blacked out,” the Navy said.

Interestingly, The Australian, a newspaper based in Australia, had put out only few of the 22,400 pages that are in its possession. Citing security concerns of India, the paper had itself blackened out vital information.

Officials had yesterday sought to play down the impact of the leak.

They had argued that the leaked documents are outdated technical manuals and don’t constitute sensitive information and is very different from specifications of the Scorpene subs being built for India.

In today’s statement, the Navy said it has taken up the matter with Directorate General of Armament of the French government expressing concern over this incident and has requested the French government to investigate this incident with urgency and share their findings with the Indian side.

The matter is being taken up with concerned foreign governments through diplomatic channels to verify the authenticity of the reports, it added.

“The government of India, as a matter of abundant precaution, is also examining the impact if the information contained in the documents claimed to be available with the Australian sources is compromised.

“The detailed assessment of potential impact is being undertaken by a high-level committee constituted by the Ministry of Defence and the Indian Navy is taking all necessary steps to mitigate any probable security compromise,” the statement by the Navy said.

Defence experts had yesterday raised concerns over the leak, irrespective of the leak compromising Indian security or not.

Defence analyst Commodore Uday Bhaskar (Retd), Director of Society of Policy Studies, had said that if the veracity of the documents is proved then it definitely compromises the Indian platform.

“This is so because the leakage of so much technical details compromises the submarines capability to stay undetected,” he said.

Rear Admiral Raja Menon (Retd), a submariner who once headed naval operations, had said the breach of security of data should not have happened.

“The loss of data is a serious issue,” he had said.

Scorpene data leak not from our side: MDL

Meanwhile, Mazagon Dock Limited (MDL), where the Scorpene submarines are being built, on Thursday said the data leak did not take place from its end and that it was assisting the Navy in the probe.

A day after the data leak on the capabilities of six highly advanced submarines being built for the Indian Navy in Mumbai in collaboration with a French company came to light, an MDL official said there were stringent norms at MDL on data security.

“We are helping Navy in the probe. We are certain the data leak was not from our side,” an MDL official said here.

“It needs to be verified if the leaked documents are authentic,” the official said, reacting to reports of the massive data leak.

“There are stringent norms at MDL on data security,” the official said.

MDL head Rear Admiral Rahul Shrawat was not available for comments.

French shipbuilder DCNS has provided technology for the Rs 23,562-crore project.

MDL is scheduled to deliver the first of the six submarines to the Indian Navy early next year and the remaining are likely to be delivered by 2020. — Agencies