Tag: Drdo Espionage Case

The arrested employees were receiving money in their bank accounts from foreign countries

Another twist has emerged in the sensational Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) espionage case. Crime Branch of Odisha Police has found involvement of another female operative who was in touch with one of the five arrested accused in the case.

Crime Branch ADG, Sanjeev Panda on Saturday said that the suspect woman had established contacts with the accused and developed acquaintance by claiming that she belonged to the same district as the former.

On September 15, a special squad of the Balasore Police led by the Eastern Range IG picked up five contractual employees at DRDO from the main gate of its integrated test range (ITR) for questioning over espionage charges. Out of them, four accused were working at the launch pad-3 of ITR, Chandipur.

The mysterious ‘operative’ was using proxy IP addresses of Pakistan, India, US and Germany to keep the location and identity secret.

“The CB will seek assistance of Central agencies and establish contact with the Interpol to track down the mysterious lady handler who had been eliciting information from the five accused DRDO staff through honey trapping,” informed Crime Branch ADG Sanjeev Panda.

The Odisha Crime Branch said on Monday that the mobile phone of one of the five accused in the sensational intel leak case from the DRDO in Chandipur has been hacked for eight months.

The Crime Branch said that the elusive female operative in the spy ring, who is said to have honey trapped five employees of the DRDO for obtaining crucial intelligence about the high security defence installation, had managed to hack the mobile phone of one arrested accused for a protracted eight month period.

Crime Branch ADG, Sanjeeb Panda today said that one of the five accused, who have been arrested so far in the case, received cash transfer of around Rs 38,000 from a bank account in Dubai.

As the Crime Branch sleuths go about busting the entire ground network of the espionage ring, a three-member Indian Air Force team is learnt to have been aiding them in collecting reports about the type of information leaked by the accused before their arrest and the importance of the leads.

The five contractual DRDO employees, arrested on charges of leaking sensitive information to foreign agents,  were remanded to the Crime Branch custody for seven days by a court on Saturday.