Delhi court extends CBI remand of journalist, his associate for five days

New Delhi [India], May 22 : The Rouse Avenue Court of Delhi on Monday extended the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) remand for five further days, of journalist Vivek Raghuvanshi and his associate ex-Navy Commander Ashish Pathak for allegedly sharing information sensitive to national security with foreign countries.

The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (CMM) Anjani Mahajan on Monday after noting the submissions of CBI further extended the remand period of Vivek Raghuvanshi and Ashish Pathak. They were earlier produced before the Court on May 17, 2023, and from then they were on CBI remand.

CBI earlier, said the arrests have been made in an ongoing investigation of a case registered under Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act r/w Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, the CBI stated in a statement.

The CBI had registered the said case on December 9, 2022, against a person for alleged involvement in the "illegal collection of sensitive information including the minute details of the DRDO defence projects and their progress, sensitive details about the future procurement of Indian armed forces which reveal the strategic preparedness of country's classified communications and information relating to national security, details of the strategic and diplomatic talks of India with our friendly countries and sharing such classified information with intelligence agencies of foreign countries".

Searches were conducted around 15 locations, in NCR and in Jaipur. CBI has seized 48 electronic devices including laptops, tablets, mobile phones hard disks and pen drives etc. belonging to the FIR named accused and others associated with the said accused, during searches.

"Besides, a number of incriminating documents relating to Indian defence establishments, have also been seized, said the CBI.

The data stored in cloud-based accounts, emails and social media accounts belonging to the accused/others have also been recovered by digital forensic experts of CBI. It was also alleged that the accused and his associate (Ex-Navy Commander, presently working with a private firm), were in possession of classified secret documents related to Indian defence establishments.

The scrutiny of devices recovered so far also revealed the accused's involvement in collecting confidential information related to India's Defence procurement from different sources and was in contact with several foreign Entities/Agents/Persons, and that he had entered into contracts/agreements with several foreign entities for sharing of confidential information.

It was also alleged that the accused and his family members had received substantial amounts from foreign sources, the CBI stated.