Tuesday, November 22 2005 11:31 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

America: A federal court has found two defence companies in New England along with their top executives guilty of violating US export control laws by selling technology that "helped" India improve its Agni medium range nuclear missile.

The defence company executives Walter Lachman and Maurice Subillia Jr were sentenced to three years of probation after a five-day sentence hearing.

The court also imposed a fine of USD 250,000 on the company Fiber Materials Inc. Fiber Materials of Maine and its subsidiary Materials International along with the top executives were found guilty of conspiring to export a control panel from the US to India's Defense Research Development Laboratory (DRDL) in April 1988.

The panel was needed to operate a production size hot isostatic press. The control panel required a special export license from the U.S. Department of Commerce, and no such license was obtained by the defendants.

The control panel and the isostatic press were sold to the defense laboratory which was developing India's principal nuclear-capable ballistic missile Agni, according to the casesheet.

The contract under which this equipment was supplied was between the defendants and DRDL and was signed by the Project Director of 'Agni', it said.