ITR espionage:Ishwar’s bail plea rejected

Balasore: The District and Sessions court here today rejected the bail application of Ishwar Chandra Behera, accused of passing secret information related to Integrated Test Range in Chandipur to an ISI agent in Kolkata.

The court after hearing the petition yesterday had reserved the verdict.

During hearing, Behera’s counsel had argued that the crime branch has failed to submit a chargesheet against Behera even after 120 days of his arrest. He too pointed out that, there was no base to the allegations levelled against his client.

On the other hand, government prosecutor opposed the bail plea while mentioning about the instance of money transfer to Behera’s bank accounts from abroad and passing secret defence-related information to the ISI agent.

On January 23, Behera, a native of Kantipur village in Baisinga block of Mayurbhanj district, was arrested for allegedly passing confidential information on various missiles to his ISI conduit in Kolkata. A hard disk, two mobile phones and a bank passbook were seized from his possession at the time of arrest.

A case has been registered against him in Chandipur police station under Sections 120-B (criminal conspiracy) and 121-A (treason) of IPC.