IAC theft case: NIA court in Kerala sentences accused to 5, 3 years jail

Kochi, Nov 4 (IANS) A Special NIA court in Kerala's Ernakulam on Friday sentenced two men convicted of stealing computer hardware components from the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) to different jail terms.

Sumit Kumar Singh was sentenced to five years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 1,70,000 and Daya Ram to three years rigorous imprisonment with fine of Rs 1,70,000.

Both the accused were convicted under Sections 120B, 201, 461, 454 and 380 read with 34 of Indian Penal Code besides section 66F(1)(B) of Information Technology Act.

The case pertains to the criminal trespass and theft of critical computer hardware components, including processors, RAMs and solid state drives installed on computer systems aboard Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) under construction at the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), Kochi, between July and September, 2019, thereby causing damage to sensitive defence infrastructure with the intention of threatening the security of India.

The case was initially registered at Ernakulam Town South Police Station in Kochi in 2019 and later on, the probe of the matter was taken over by the NIA.

The NIA investigators recovered one of the stolen SSDs and a RAM during search at the house of Sumit Kuman Singh in Bihar's Munger district. Investigations revealed that the accused had sold one of the stolen processors. All remaining items, reported to be stolen, were recovered from Gujarat's Surat, where he had stayed for two months, after leaving Kochi in September 2019.