New Delhi: Documents relating to Indian submarines were stolen from French naval contractor DCNS and not leaked, a French government source said on Thursday, adding that the information published so far showed only operational aspects of the submarines.
India and France have opened investigations after The Australian newspaper published on Wednesday documents about its Scorpene submarines being built in India.
Read: Scorpene data leak: India asks France to probe; denies ‘security compromise’
"It is not a leak, it is theft," the source said. "We have not found any DCNS negligence, but we have identified some dishonesty by an individual."
The source said the documents looked to have been stolen in 2011 by a former French employee that had been fired while providing training in India on the use of the submarines.
The documents were not classified and at this stage appeared to only focus on the operational elements of the submarines, the source said.
In a statement released on Thursday, the Navy said it has taken up the matter with Directorate General of Armament of the French government expressing concern over this incident and has requested the French government to investigate this incident with urgency and share their findings with the Indian side.
The matter is being taken up with concerned foreign governments through diplomatic channels to verify the authenticity of the reports, it added.
"The government of India, as a matter of abundant precaution, is also examining the impact if the information contained in the documents claimed to be available with the Australian sources is compromised.”
"The detailed assessment of potential impact is being undertaken by a high level committee constituted by the Ministry of Defence and the Indian Navy is taking all necessary steps to mitigate any probable security compromise," the statement by the Navy said.
Defence experts had yesterday raised concerns over the leak, irrespective of the leak compromising Indian security or not.
