[Indigenous Aircraft Carrier Theft Case] NIA Court Ernakulam sentences two men to 5, 3 years rigorous imprisonment & fine

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Special Court, Ernakulam on Friday i.e August 4, 2022, sentenced two men under various provisions of the IPC and IT Act for stealing computer hardware components from the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC).

The sentences awarded to the two convicts are:

1. Sumit Kumar Singh has been convicted to five years of rigorous imprisonment (RI) with a fine of Rs 1,70,000.
2. Daya Ram has been convicted to three years RI with a fine of Rs 1,70,000.

The two men have been convicted for offences under Sections 120B, 201, 461, 454, and 380 read with Section 34 of the Indian Penal Code, and Section 66F(1)(B) of Information Technology Act.

The case involves the criminal trespass and theft of critical computer hardware components, such as processors, RAMs, and solid state drives (SSDs), installed on computer systems aboard the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (IAC) under construction at the Cochin Shipyard Ltd (CSL), Kochi, between July and September 2019, causing damage to sensitive defense infrastructure and threatening India's security.

As per the NIA press release, the case was initially registered at Ernakulam Town South Police Station, Kochi City, Kerala on September 16, 2019, under Sections 457, 461, 380, 121, and 121A of the IPC and Section 66F of the IT Act, and later taken over by the NIA.

“The NIA investigators recovered one of the stolen SSDs and a RAM during the 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,” the federal agencies press release stated.