The British government on Tuesday gave the go-ahead for the extradition of Ravi Shankaran, one of the prime accused in the naval war-room leak scandal probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation. However, he has been granted 14 days’ time to move an appeal in the case.
A British Home Office spokesperson said: “On May 22 the Secretary of State, having carefully considered all relevant matters, signed an order for Ravi Shankaran’s extradition to India… Mr. Shankaran is accused of industrial espionage under the Indian Official Secrets Act.”
The order came two months after a British court rejected the appeal by Mr. Shankaran against his extradition.
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Mr. Shankaran, a retired Indian naval officer who had fled to Britain to escape trial for allegedly leaking secret defence information, lost his appeal against extradition in March. On his plea, a British court ruled that his team had presented no new evidence to prove that he had no “prima facie case to answer” and, on the other hand, a case to answer had been made out against him.
District Judge Nicholas Evans, delivering his verdict at Westminster Magistrates Court in London, dismissed Mr. Shankaran’s claim that the CBI had framed him. He had also pleaded that it was not possible for anyone to send out classified information in such a short amount of time as suggested by the agency. However, with the help of its cyber experts, the CBI proved otherwise in the British court, said an agency official.
Mr. Shankaran is allegedly involved in leaking over 7,000 pages of classified information from the naval war-room and air defence headquarters to arms traders in 2006. He fled the country after the agency registered a case against him in March that year. Later, Indian agencies revoked his passport and got issued a Red Alert warrant for his arrest.
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The Indian authorities had sought his extradition from Britain in 2007 and after three years he was arrested.