New Delhi, April 10: A UK court has issued an arrest warrant against Ravi Shankaran, a relative of former navy chief Arun Prakash and the main accused in the navy war room leak case.

The move will help the CBI’s efforts to extradite Shankaran, living in Britain since the lid was blown off the scandal in which sensitive documents were leaked from the navy’s war room. The war room is a tightly-guarded centre whe-re operations are pl-anned and executed.

The CBI had requested the British home department for Shankaran’s provisional arrest under the India-UK extradition treaty. Responding to the plea, an additional district judge issued the arrest warrant against the 43-year-old.

The agency handed documents proving Shankaran was in Britain and gave a list of calls he made to people in India. Extradition proceedings will begin once Shankaran is arrested, the CBI said, adding the warrant was a breakthrough. “It will curtail his movements,” an official said.

A red-corner notice was issued against Shankaran after the chief metropolitan magistrate of Delhi declared him a proclaimed offender on June 17 last year. Authorities in the UK were also informed about the order. His properties and assets have already been attached.

Former naval commander Kulbhushan Prashar, arrested last year from Delhi airport, revealed he was in the UK.

Shankaran fled India before the CBI registered a case on March 20 last year against him and eight others under various sections of the Official Secrets Act and Section 120(b) — criminal conspiracy — of the Indian Penal Code.

Five of them — Vinod Kumar Jha, Virender Rana, Parashar, Kashyap Kumar and Shankaran — are former navy officials.