An Army Major, who is under the scanner of investigating agencies for alleged leak of sensitive information to a Pakistani intelligence agency, is likely to be booked under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) soon for illegal possession of confidential Army documents. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) which is in the process of questioning
the Major is likely to register a case against him which may include charges of espionage. “Violation of OSA is clearly there. Our concern is why a case under the OSA had not been registered against the Major till now. More cases including espionage could also be registered by the NIA,” a government official said. There is also a possibility of terror charges being pressed against the Army Major if the joint investigation by the NIA and Military Intelligence throws up evidence in that direction.
The probe so far has clearly established the violation of stringent Official Secrets Act (OSA) as the Major, posted in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, had over 2,500 defence presentations on his personal computer much beyond his sphere of work. The information in possession of the Army Major was “secret’’ and “top secret’’ which can only be available with an officer of the rank of a Brigadier or above. “We need to find the source from where he got all that information,” an official said. Involvement of other officers in the Army is also not being ruled out. “The officer could not have had access to all the defence files. We are looking into who all might have given him the files which could also have been in good faith,” the sources said.
The NIA could also make inquiries with the tri-services Integrated Defence Staff at New Delhi as part of its investigations since some of the presentations suspected to be in the Major’s computer were made in New Delhi. It included air support to be provided by the Air Force to Indian troops in case Pakistan launches an attack.