Odisha Police arrest 4 DRDO staff for sharing defence secrets and techniques with ‘Pakistani brokers’

Express News Service

BHUBANESWAR: The tremor of espionage resurfaced within the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) once more with the arrest of 4 individuals from a missile take a look at facility off the Odisha coast for his or her alleged hyperlinks with Pakistani brokers.

Acting on intelligence inputs, a particular group of Odisha police led by IG (Eastern Range) Himashu Lal on Tuesday apprehended the 4, who had been working as contractual staff on the Integrated Test Range (ITR), a DRDO unit at Chandipur-on-sea.

Preliminary investigations revealed the contractual staff had been honey trapped for info on actions on the take a look at facility. Chandipur has two items of DRDO – Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE) and ITR from the place a lot of missiles and ammunition are examined.

Police sources stated they’d first acquired messages from the brokers on Facebook Messenger and thereafter they began speaking on WhatsApp through voice and video calls. The brokers used pretend names and transferred cash in alternate for secret info. After monitoring them for 3 days, the 12-member police group nabbed them from their respective homes below Chandipur police limits.

“Based on the information that some persons were wrongfully and willfully communicating classified defence secrets to foreign nationals, appearing to be Pakistani agents, we tracked and arrested them. They were being contacted from various ISD phone numbers and in exchange, they were getting monetary benefits from them,” stated the IG.

A case below sections 120-B/121-A/34 of IPC-R/W and sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Official Secret Act has been registered by Balasore district police for committing offence of inflicting severe hurt to the safety, sovereignty and integrity of the nation. “We are interrogating the four persons and some others to unearth more evidence in the case. Further investigation is on,” the IG added.

On January 23, 2015, one Iswar Chandra Behera of Kantipur village below Baisinga police limits in Mayurbhanj district was arrested on the fees of espionage. He was awarded life imprisonment on February 11 this 12 months. Behera, a former contractual worker, had acquired cash from Abu Dhabi, Meerut, Mumbai, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh for allegedly sharing defence details about the testing of missiles and very important installations positioned in Chandipur and Kalam Island.