Defence, Aviation Ministries Blamed For Arms Drop

The Parliamentary committee on government assurances yesterday charged the ministries of home, defence and civil aviation with collective irresponsibility leading to arms dropping in Purulia on December 17, 1995.

Censuring these ministries, the committee, in its report, found alarming shortcomings in the functioning of the ministries in sharing of important intelligence information, operation of unscheduled aircraft in Indian skies, radar surveillance and, above all, inter departmental coordination.

The representatives of the ministries of home, defence and civil aviation, who appeared before the committee to give evidence, showed uncanny skill in blaming each other for not being able to prevent the arms dropping by a foreign aircraft.

 

The committee, headed by E Ahamed, said each ministry tried to justify its inaction, maintaining it was the job of the other ministry. The committee is not impressed by this skillful attempt on the part of the ministries to pass the buck.

It said the fact is that a foreign aircraft loaded with sophisticated arms flew into the Indian skies, halted at a few places, dropped arms at a place while flying between two stations, went out of India and again came back after two days and remained in the country for a day without being detected.

It quoted the civil aviation secretary as having stated that it was sheer luck that the aircraft was identified just two hours before it flew out of India en route to Karachi.

The committee said it accepted and appreciated the frank admission by the home secretary that there was a total failure on the part of governmental agencies and that there was total lack of coordination among them.

The home secretary informed the committee that information from the intelligence bureau was available to the government, suggesting that an aircraft would drop arms near about the date on which the actual arms drop took place. The area specified was Dhanbad in Bihar.

He said, in cases like, this intelligence information could not be always precise.

The committee said one startling fact that came out during the evidence was that the home secretary had not passed on intelligence information to the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the civil aviation ministry.

Noting that it was the DGCA which gave permission to planes to overfly India, the committee said it was a serious lapse on the part of the home ministry, which contributed in no small measure to the arms dropping in Purulia.

The home secretary conceded before the committee that at the Mumbai airport, where the aircraft was forcelanded, there was total security foul-up which enabled Kim Davy, the main accused, to escape with great ease.