DRDO Espionage Case: Odisha police nab Sr technical official at ITR Chandipur

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha police on Friday arrested a senior technical official of DRDO’s Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur on charges of leaking classified information to Pakistan, a senior police officer said.

Briefing mediapersons in Balasore, IG (eastern range) Himanshu Kumar Lal said, “We have arrested a senior technical officer of ITR Chandipur for passing sensitive information to one foreign agent working in Pakistan.”

Like the 2021 case, the ITR official was allegedly honey-trapped by some female operatives from Pakistan. They were sending some videos to the official through WhatsApp and in lieu of that, he (the ITR official) had shared sensitive defence information with them, said Lal.

Following the 2021 case related to leakage of secret information to Pakistan, the local police along with a central agency were continuing with their investigation into the case, said Balasore SP Sagarika Nath.

“Recently, we came to know that some sensitive information in the form of visual images as well as sensitive communication had been transmitted to Pakistani agents. Following interrogation, we have apprehended the ITR official,” she said.

The cellphone of the official has been seized and further investigation into the matter is going on, the SP added.

The police will sensitise the ITR Chandipur officials about the modus of operandi of the foreign agents, she said.

The Odisha police will now take steps to stop foreign agents from getting vital information from the defence establishment, Lal said.

Notably, the Odisha police on September 14, 2021 had arrested five contractual employees of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) unit in Chandipur on charges of sharing classified defence information with unknown foreign agents, suspected to be from Pakistan.

–IANS