The National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted searches at Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL) on Wednesday as part of their ongoing investigation into the 2019 theft case on INS Vikrant, India's first indigenous aircraft carrier.
The searches, executed by NIA's Hyderabad unit, focused on investigating the possibility of espionage related to the theft.
Following the searches, two contract workers were taken into custody by the NIA and are currently being interrogated. While a section of the media reported the raids were connected to the 2021 Vizag espionage case, NIA sources confirmed that the inspection was related to the Visakhapatnam case, which involves the leakage of classified defence information through a Pakistani ISI spying network.
The NIA has been investigating the potential leakage of sensitive information and possible anti-national activities connected to the 2019 incident, during which micro-processors, hard disks, and RAMs were stolen from INS Vikrant while it was under construction. This theft raised significant concerns about a potential security breach.
Initially, the case was investigated by state police for two weeks after Cochin Shipyard authorities filed a complaint. However, the NIA subsequently took over the investigation. In 2022, the NIA court convicted two individuals, Sumit Kumar Singh and Daya Ram, who pleaded guilty to the theft and were sentenced to five and three years of imprisonment, respectively.
