Larkins brothers’ conviction upheld

Express News Service

New Delhi, April 30: FIFTEEN years after a district court found them guilty in an espionage case, the Delhi High Court upheld the conviction of former Major General F.D. Larkins and his brother Air Vice-Marshal K.H. Larkins, but acquitted the other two accused in the case.

In 1985, the district court had imposed a 10-year sentence on the two brothers for passing on secret Defence documents to four American diplomats. The accused are all out on bail pending disposal of their appeal.

Justice R.S. Sodhi upheld the sentence and ordered that their bail bonds be discharged and they be taken into custody immediately.

However the High Court acquitted co-accused Lt Col Jasbir Singh and his employee Jaspal Singh Gill due to lack of sufficient evidence.

In its 27-page judgement, the court upheld the conviction of the two brothers on the basis of the confessional statement made by F.D. Larkins in which he said that he involved his brother K.H. Larkins in passing on information to foreign agents between July 1981 to September 1982.

Larkins had said that he had hatched a conspiracy with his brother and Jasbir Singh to pass on secret and classified Defence documents to four US officials, who were found to be working as attaches in the US embassy, for monetary gain.

According to the prosecution, which examined 60 witnesses, F.D. Larkins was offered Rs 20,000 to Rs 40,000 for passing on Air Force technical manual pertaining to MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-25 fighters, and T-72 tanks.

The US officials, Fafeal Mariani, Reynold Frederick Stelloh, Harry L. Wertherbe and Major Pal Mockinlay Pittman, had also wanted information on various Russian equipment being supplied to the Indian Army and according to the prosecution, the Larkins were leaking both information and documents, including facts related to T-72 tanks procured from Russia.

According to the prosecution, the four US officials dealt with Larkins under an alias of Jockey, Ben, John and Bud. Acquitting Jasbir Singh and Jaspal Singh, the court said documents recovered from them could not prove a conspiracy or ‘‘be relevant as conduct to fasten liability under the Official Secrets Act’’.The former major general had challenged the lower court order on the ground that his confessional statement was not voluntary as he was not allowed to communicate with anybody, nor was he provided legal aid.

The FIR was registered by the police on November 10, 1983 on a complaint by the then Air Vice-Marshal S. Raghavendran after he received information from Group Captain Jagjit Singh that K.H. Larkins had offered him Rs 20,000 to pass on certain secret Air Force manuals.