JOLTED by criticism over the Official Secrets Act (OSA) case involving Kashmiri journalist Iftekar Geelani—where Internet downloads were passed as secrets—the Government appears to be cautious. Evidence: It has taken over two years for the Ministry of Home Affairs to give clearance for OSA to be slapped against a clutch of retired Indian Air Force officers and suppliers who were arrested in New Delhi way back on July 26, 2001.Last week, the CBI, the prosecuting agency in the case, received a formal complaint from the MHA that some documents recovered during the 2001 raids had finally been categorised ‘‘top secret’’ by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and that their distribution was prejudicial to national security.Confidential MoD agreements and documents on the purchase of IAF’s communication squadron are understood to be the ones ticked as classified by the MoD.Soon after the swoop-down, the arrested men were sent to jail and an order passed by the Special Court had noted how, ‘‘original documents contained information on operational utilisation and disclosure thereof could benefit the enemy to modify their war plans or sabotage our plans to endanger our national security.’’CBI officials point out that after the two-year-long wait for classification of documents, they are now working overtime on the case. Three among the eight arrested people are to be chargesheeted before a special court in a day or two.Two separate chargesheets are to be filed booking retired Air Vice Marshal J S Kumar, retired Wing Commander Y S Tomar and and Sergeant K C Saini under the OSA and Prevention of Corruption Act.As reported earlier by The Indian Express, it was following the arrests and interrogation of eight persons that MoD had put 40 serving officials of IAF and the Controller of Defence Accounts on the watchlist.
