Balasore, Sep 14 (PTI): Four contractual employees of DRDO’s integrated test range in Odisha’s Balasore district were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly passing classified information to suspected Pakistani agents, the police said.
The four were initially detained for questioning, said Himansu Kumar Lal, Inspector General, Eastern Range.
They were arrested following the interrogation, he stated.
The action came in the wake of intelligence inputs which suggested that some persons are “wrongfully and wilfully communicating classified defence secrets to foreign agents, appearing to be Pakistani agents, being contacted through various ISD phone numbers”, the Balasore Police said in a release.
Multiple police teams, comprising four DSPs and as many inspector-rank officers, were formed and the contractual employees of the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO’s) test range in Chandipur detained following raids.
They have been accused of leaking classified information to the foreign agents and getting “wrongful monetary benefits in return, the release said.
Several incriminating materials were also recovered, according to the police.
A case has been lodged at Chandipur police station under various sections of the Indian Penal Code and the Official Secrets Act “for committing offence of causing serious harm to the security, sovereignty and integrity of our nation”, the release said.
DRDO officials, when contacted, refused to comment on the matter, and said that the police were looking into the allegations.
In a similar case in Balasore in 2014, a contractual photographer, Iswar Behera , was apprehended after he was found leaking sensitive information about the test range.
A sessions court sentenced him to life imprisonment on February 11.