Four DRDO contractual staff held for leaking vital information to foreign agents

Balasore: The Balasore police today detained four contractual employees of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) here on charges of leaking vital information about the high-security defence installation.

The four suspects are residents of Jhampura hata and Nuanai areas in Chandipur.

Sources said six teams consisting of six IICs and six DSPs were formed to nab the suspects. The teams were conducting crackdowns for the last three days for the same. Acting on reliable information, a special squad of Balasore police, under the direction of IG (Eastern Range), picked up the five from their houses late last night.

Police said the four have been detained under Sections 120-B, 121-A and 34 of IPC R/W Section 3,4 and 5 of Official Secret Act for committing offence causing serious harm to the security, sovereignty and integrity of the nation. Further interrogation of the four is underway to unearth more evidences in this case.

“We had received credible information that some persons are wrongfully and willfully communicating the classified defence secrets to foreign agents, appearing to be Pakistani agents, being contacted from various ISD phone numbers. In exchange, they were getting wrongful monetary benefits from them. Based on the inputs, multiple police teams were formed to apprehend the culprits. During raids, several incriminating materials were recovered,” said police.F

This is for the second time such a case of espionage surfaced at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur. In January 2015, a contractual photographer of Chandipur ITR was arrested for passing on information related to missile design and technology to Pakistan’s Inter-services Intelligence (ISI). He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in February this year.