Ex-RAW official gets bail in spying case

New Delhi, Aug 23 (PTI) Former Research and Analysis Wing
official Brigadier (Retd) Ujjal Dasgupta, who is accused of
passing sensitive information to an American woman diplomat,
was Monday granted bail by a city court here nearly four years
after his arrest.

Dasgupta is the last of the three accused to get bail in
the case. Commodore (Retd) Mukesh Saini, who was working with
the National Security Council Secretariat and a Senior System
Analyst Shib Shankar Paul at the Secretariat, who were his
co-accused, have already been released on bail by the Tis
Hazari court in the Indian capital.
They were arrested in 2006 by the Delhi Police Special
Cell on charges of passing secret information to American
diplomat Rosanna Minchew.
Additional Sessions Judge Inder Jeet Singh granted the
bail subject to his furnishing a personal bond of Rs 75,000
and a surety bond of the same amount, with the conditions that
he will not leave the country and he will not contact any of
the witnesses of the case.
While granting bail, the court took note of the
"unblemished" record of his service and re-employment as
Director, Computer Cell at the Research and Analysis Wing on
the basis of his experience.
Dasgupta was looking after the development of a
'Anveshak', a database management system.
The court, in its "prima facie" observation, said Central
Forensic Sciences Laboratory analysis of seized hard disk
showed that that computer files related to Anveshak were
last accessed in March 2005.
The American Diplomat was given visa in August, 2005 to
coordinate Indo-US Cyber Security Forum. PTI ABS