A two-member CBI team left for London to assist British prosecutors in the extradition case of Ravi Shankaran,the main accused in the infamous Naval War Room leak case. After failing to achieve a breakthrough since his arrest on April 21 last year,the CBI got in touch with the UK authorities and Scotland Yard which suggested that the agency send its team for assisting the UK Crown Prosecution during his trial slated for January 19. The sources said that a two-member team,led by a Superintendent of Police,left from New Delhi along with the documents relating to the alleged involvement of 46-year-old Shankaran in the leaking of commercially sensitive information from the War Room of the Navy. Shankaran was arrested by Metropolitan Police in London,giving a ray of hope to the agency for unravelling the conspiracy in leaking of crucial classified information to commercial firms for pecuniary benefits. The CBI,which has gone unrepresented in two hearings,had sought assistance of the Crown Prosecution Services to represent the case in the court for his extradition. The CBI had registered a case on March 20,2006,against former IAF Wing Commander Sambhaji Rao Surve,Shankaran,ex-naval Commanders Vinod Kumar Jha and Vinod Rana,Raj Rani Jaiswal,Mukesh Bajaj,Wing Commander (retired) S K Kohli,Kashyap Kumar and Kulbushan Parashar. The case against these nine persons was registered under various sections of the Official Secrets Act (OSA) and Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.
