WASHINGTON, April 4: Two Indian nationals have been arrested in the US for illegally exporting American missile technology to India but the State Department says this will not affect the India-US nuclear deal.

Reports in the US media, however, say that the case could undermine congressional support for the deal.

The Indian head of a US electronics supplier and three employees have been indicted for shipping controlled US computer technology with missile applications to India.

Parthasarathy Sudarshan, founder and chief executive of Cirrus Electronics, appeared in the US District Court in Washington on Tuesday and pleaded not guilty to charges that include export violations, international arms trafficking and conspiracy.

The US Justice Department said that Mr Sudarshan and Mythili Gopal, the company's international sales manager, were arrested in South Carolina on March 23.The pair allegedly shipped to India Static Random Access Memory computer chips that are designed to withstand extreme temperature changes and have applications for missile guidance systems.

The indictment states that these chips were shipped without a required export licence. Other related equipment was described as high-technology capacitors, semiconductors and resistors-all with missile applications.

They also illegally exported US components, including the i960 microprocessor, to help India develop its Tejas light combat aircraft.

The items were shipped between 2003 and 2006 to Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Bharat Dynamics and the Aeronautical Development Establishment -- key state agencies in India's missile and aerospace sector.

Exports to those firms in India require licences from the US Department of Commerce on national-security grounds.

Mr Sudarshan and Mr Gopal allegedly used false documents about the recipients to ship the components to India through Cirrus offices in South Carolina and Singapore.

The indictment said Cirrus made the illicit shipments working closely with an unidentified Indian Embassy official in Washington who was not charged. The official helped arrange the illicit purchase of 500 of the i960 microprocessors.

Two other Cirrus employees, Akn Prasad in Bangalore and Sampath Sundar in Singapore, have also been indicted.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters that he did not see why the case should impact the Indo-US nuclear deal. “I don’t see any connection between these two things,” he said.