DRDO official arrested on espionage charges, honey trapped by Pak woman

According to the IG the accused was honey-trapped by a Pakistani woman who used to send him nude photos and videos to get sensitive information from the ITR.

Balasore: A senior technical officer of DRDO has been arrested on charges of espionage by Balasore police. Speaking to reporters said Himansu Lal, IG (Eastern Range) said Himansu Lal said that the technical officer was employed at DRDO's Integrated Test Range at Chandipur in Balasore district.

The IG also said that the accused was honey-trapped by a Pakistani woman who used to send him nude photos and videos to get sensitive information from the ITR. " The accused was in a relationship with a young Pakistani woman for a year," said Lal.

According to police sources the arrested officer shared secret information about the Defence Ministry with the Pakistani female agent in return for the obscene photos and videos. They further revealed that the honey-trapping operation was being conducted from Rawalpindi in Pakistan.

Police said that young women are being used in such honey trapping operations to spy on Indian engineers and senior officials to obtain secret information. It is to be noted that this is not the first incident of data leakage from ITR. Several officials have been arrested for alleged data leakage in the past.

Police said that a case has been registered against the accused at Chandipur police station under Sections 120-A, 120-B, and 31 of the IPC, and Sections 3, 4, and 5 of the Official Secrets Act.

According to police, sources sub-inspector Chandra Sekhar Mohanty of Chandipur police station had filed a complaint alleging that the officer of the IT shared the secret sensitive defense information regarding missile tests to a Pakistani agent for sexual as well as monetary gratification through WhatsApp conversation and exchange of sexual images and videos.

They further revealed that the officer was in contact with the agent, who was operating from Rawalpindi, for over a year. A mobile phone has been seized from his possession. Further investigation is underway to ascertain the involvement of others in the case.

In September last year, five contractual workers of ITR were arrested on charges of spying for a foreign intelligence agency, suspected to be Pakistan’s ISI.