WASHINGTON: An Indian American businessman was sentenced to 35 months in jail and slapped a USD 60,000 fine by a US court for shipping restricted military technology to Indian government entities engaged in missiles and fighter jet production and space programme.

As per the information, Parthasarathy Sudarshan, 47, CEO of Cirrus Electronics, will serve about 20 months because he has been in federal prison since his arrest in March 2007, US District Court Judge Ricardo Urbina ruled.

Sudarshan was convicted of acquiring electrical components with applications in missile guidance and firing systems in the US and supplying them to the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and the Bharat Dynamics Ltd between 2002 and 2006, according to court documents.

He was also accused of acquiring microprocessors for the Tejas, a fighter jet under development in India.

The judge said that Sudarshan broke the law and risked putting nuclear weapon technology into the wrong hands.

"This didn't happen one time. It happened time after time after time," Urbina said.

Sudarshan was originally charged with 15 counts of violating the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the Arms Export Control Act as well as acting as an illegal agent of a foreign government.

Sudarshan held himself out to be CEO of Cirrus that has offices in South Carolina, Singapore and Bangalore.