India, France begin separate probes

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 25

A day after the Scorpene submarine data leak emerged, India has expressed ‘concern’ and sought answers from France on the origins of the leak. Separately, it has launched an audit of procedures within and asked a foreign government to check on the leaked documents.

Meanwhile in Paris, news agency Reuters cited an unmanned French government source to pin blame on the data leak. “Documents relating to Indian submarines were stolen from French naval contractor DCNS and not leaked...It is not a leak, it is theft,” Reuters cited the source. It further 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.

India and France have launched separate investigations, a day after Sydney-based newspaper The Australian reported that 22,400 pages of data relating to the design, strike capability, weaponry, propulsion, intelligence-gathering abilities and stealth capability etc of the under-construction submarines had been leaked.

French company DCNS is making six Scorpene submarines in Mumbai at a cost of Rs 23,562 crore ($3.46 billion). The first one named “Kalvari” is set to be inducted into the naval fleet by yearend and the remaining five vessels at periodic intervals till 2020. The French Government holds 62 per cent stake in DCNS. 

A spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) said: “The documents that have been posted on the website by an Australian news agency (‘The Australian newspaper’) have been examined and do not pose any security compromise as the vital parameters have been blacked out.”

Sources said it was to be ascertained if the “blacking out” of the vital data was done by the newspaper or in the original documents.

The Indian Navy has taken up the matter with Director General of Armament of the French Government expressing concern over the incident and has requested the French Government to urgently investigate the incident and share the findings with India, the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar has ordered an internal audit of procedures to rule out any security compromise. The matter is being taken up with foreign governments concerned through diplomatic channels to verify the authenticity of the reports.

The government is also examining the impact if the information contained in the documents claimed to be available with Australian sources is compromised. A high-level panel constituted by the Defence Ministry and Navy will study the impact of the data-leak.