DRDO Espionage Case: Odisha Police Finds Involvement of Another Woman

Bhubaneswar:  The crime branch of Odisha police, which is investigating the DRDO espionage case, has detected involvement of another woman and Mumbai link in the sensitive case, a senior police officer said on Saturday.

Earlier, the crime branch had found involvement of a female operative, suspected to be from Pakistan, in the espionage case at DRDO’s Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Odisha’s Balasore district.

Another female operative was in touch with one of five ITR arrested employees of the Chandipur ITR and money transaction has also been detected, said Additional Director General (ADG), crime branch, Sanjeeb Panda.

Panda said the woman had come in contact with one of the accused identifying herself as a native of his area and presently working in Dubai.

After establishing a contact with the accused, the woman had borrowed Rs 40,000 with a promise to return. Accordingly, the accused transferred Rs 40,000 in two instalments to two different bank accounts in Mumbai on April 18, 2021, the ADG said.

On the very next day, the amount was returned to the SBI account of the accused at Chandipur branch, Panda said, adding, “We suspect that the money transaction was made to win the confidence of the accused.”

The ADG further said a team of the crime branch will soon visit Mumbai for further investigation into the case.

Notably, the Odisha police on September 14 had arrested five contractual employees of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) unit at Chandipur, on charges of sharing classified defence information with unknown foreign agents, suspected to be from Pakistan.

–IANS