ITR Espionage: Former DRDO Contractual Lensman Ishwara Behera Awarded Life Imprisonment

Balasore: Court of Additional District Judge (ADJ), Balasore convicted former contractual Lensman of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Ishwara Behera in the espionage case and sentenced him to life imprisonment on Thursday.

Behera was convicted for passing confidential and sensitive information of Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur to Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI.

He was convicted under Sections 121A and 120B of the IPC, and 3, 4 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act.

He was found guilty for the offences of spying and wrongful communication of information protected under the law with the court saying that his actions caused severe security threat to the nation.

Behera, a resident of Kantipur village in Baisinga block of Mayurbhanj district, had been arrested on January 22, 2015 for allegedly supplying secret information on various missiles test-fired by DRDO from Wheeler Island to his ISI conduit in Kolkata.

Ishwar was employed as a cameraperson at the ITR on contractual basis in 2007. He had been spying for ISI for the last 8-10 months prior to his arrest.

A hard disk, two mobile phones and a bank passbook had been seized from his possession at the time of arrest.

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

Acting on IB inputs, the police had kept strict vigil on Behera’s activities. He was tracked for eight months and was caught with evidence that he was keeping secret contact with the ISI agent in Kolkata.

(Edited By Rashmi Ranjan Mohanty)