Navy officer facing sex scandal inquiry discharged

NEW DELHI - Commodore Sukhjinder Singh, an Indian Navy officer who was closely involved with the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov deal with Russia and is facing a sex scandal probe, will be discharged from service, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said Saturday.

“He (Singh) will be discharged. He will not be in service now,” Antony told reporters at a function to induct US-built C-130J aircraft into the Indian Air Force.

The investigation against Commodore Singh, who was heading the Indian team overseeing refit of the carrier in Russia, was involved in a relationship with a Russian woman. Singh’s explicit photographs with the woman had formed part of the evidence to indict him.

Singh was posted as the Indian warship production superintendent overseeing Gorshkov’s refit in Russia from 2005 to 2007.

Even after returning to India, he continued to remain connected with the programme as the principal director (aircraft carrier project) in New Delhi till mid-2009. In April last, he was relieved of his posting in the defence ministry’s directorate-general of quality assurance.