Australian Supreme Court has directed newspaper ‘The Australian’ to remove all sensitive data relating to Scorpene submarines from its website and not to publish any information further. The temporary order expires on Thursday as the Australian Supreme Court is set to hear the case filed by DCNS on September 1.
French submarine builder DCNS through the application filed, has demanded the Australian to remove the documents which it has published on its website and prevent further publishing of other documents. Newspaper has over the last week released several pages of classified information from among the 22,400 pages it obtained, in redacted form, detailing the stealth and combat capabilities of the Scorpene under construction for the Indian Navy.
Meanwhile, Indian Navy has set-up a high level committee to find out the extent of the leak and the damage to the Navy. Talking to reporters in New Delhi yesterday, Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba said that leak of information related to Scorpene submarine is a matter of serious concern and they have asked French Defence firm DCNS to launch an urgent investigation.
The committee will be headed by Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Ashok Kumar. Mr Lanba said, based on the report of the committee, Navy will see what mitigation measures need to be taken.