Navy sacks commodore over sex scandal

Mtoday news

New Delhi, Feb 5: Defence Minister A K Antony has sacked a senior Navy officer for having sexual relations with a Russian woman in Moscow as head of the Indian team overseeing the refit of aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov there.

 

 

 

 The government will discharge Naval Commodore Sukhjinder Singh from service for his “unbecoming of an officer” conduct after his explicit photographs with an unidentified foreign woman surfaced in the media at a time when India was negotiating an escalated price with Russia to purchase aircraft carrier “Admiral Gorshkov”.

 

“He will be discharged. He will not be in service. We have taken a decision,” Defence Minister A K Antony said here on Saturday. The tainted officer still has about two years in the service but has to pack his bag immediately as the Presidential dismissal order is expected soon.

Singh was suspected to be honey trapped by Russian intelligence agencies weakening India’s position in the “Gorshkov” negotiation.

However, the fact that Sukhjinder will be discharged from the service and not face a court-martial suggests that the enquiry against the officer may not find any link between his loose moral conduct and long-drawn price negotiation for the carrier for the refit of 44,570 tonne-carrier.

The ministry took the decision following a board of inquiry headed by a vice-admiral, the report of which was submitted to the minister. Sukhjinder was superintendent of warship till 2007 in Russia and one among the nine-member Indian team that was negotiating the new price for the carrier with the Russians.

Even after returning from Russia, Singh continued to be associated with the “Gorshkov” programme as the principal director (aircraft carrier project) till mid-2009.

He was later relieved of his posting in the Defence Ministry’s directorate-general of quality assurance. After repeated Russian demands for higher prices for retrofitting the aircraft carrier, the two sides last year finally settled on $ 2.33 billion as the cost of the refitting the carrier, which is scheduled to be inducted into service by 2012.