NEW DELHI, April 7: Five people have been arrested, including three retired naval officers, over the alleged leak of military secrets to help international arms firms clinch Indian defence deals, reports said on Friday.

The five were held under the Official Secrets Act for conspiring to trade in classified documents and information that could affect the country’s sovereignty, the newspaper reports said.

The arrests followed raids conducted nationwide.

Cases have also been filed against four other suspects in the so-called War-Room Leak case that first hit headlines a year ago, but those four have not been arrested.

Among the nine accused are a former air force wing commander, two ex-naval commanders and a former naval captain. The rest are civilians, the Hindu newspaper said.

Authorities believe two naval officers took early retirement and paid other military officers to “leak” classified information from the tightly guarded Navy war-room in New Delhi.

The information was mainly commercial and meant for international armament companies eager to win lucrative defence contracts, The Times of India reported.—AFP