3 Ex-India Officers Sentenced as Spies
Three senior retired Indian military officers were sentenced to 10 years in jail Wednesday for selling the country’s top defense secrets to a foreign embassy.
The government has not linked any country with the spy scandal, but the Press Trust of India news agency said the officers were arrested in 1983 on charges of passing classified documents about India’s defense equipment from the Soviet Union to contacts in the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi.
The Soviet Union is India’s largest supplier of weapons.
Maj. Gen. Frank Larkins, 63; his brother, Air Vice Marshal Kenneth Larkins, 62, and 55-year-old Lt. Col. Jasbir Singh were all found guilty and sentenced by New Delhi magistrate K.B. Andley.
Jaspal Singh Gill, an arms dealer who was also arrested for involvement in the case, was sentenced to two years in prison.
Andley said the defendants were motivated by greed, not ideology. The amount they received for the secrets was not disclosed.
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