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.
