New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) Tuesday arrested three contract employees deployed at the naval bases in Karnataka’s Karwar and Kerala’s Kochi on charges of leaking sensitive and confidential information on the Indian Navy with intelligence operatives of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Two accused—Vethan Laxman Tandel and Akshay Ravi Naik—worked as contract employees at the Karwar naval base and were taken into custody from Karnataka’s Uttara Kannada district. The third accused, Abhilash P.A., worked at the Kochi naval base and was taken into custody from the port city Tuesday. Tuesday’s arrest brought the total number of people arrested in the case to eight.
Developed under ‘Project Seabird’ by the Union government, the Karwar naval base is considered as a key strategic base for the Indian Navy. The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh at the time of inauguration of a project in 2021 vowed to make it the biggest naval base in Asia. “It is said that this will become India’s largest naval base, but I have said not only India’s but our wish is also that it should become Asia’s biggest naval base, and I will try to get the budget allocation increased if required for this,” Singh had said.
The Andhra Pradesh Police initially registered the case, suspecting the involvement of foreign intelligence operatives in an alleged espionage scandal. It was in June 2023 that the NIA registered a fresh case based on the orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).
“All the three accused persons arrested today (Tuesday) were found to have been in contact with Pakistan Intelligence Operatives (PIOs) through social media,” an NIA spokesperson said Wednesday.
“They were sharing sensitive information about Indian defence establishments at Karwar and Kochi naval bases and receiving money from PIOs in exchange for the information, according to the NIA investigations,” the spokesperson added.
‘Duo’s role in espionage case has surfaced’
The case filed by the NIA on 5 June 2023 brought charges against one Deepak from Haryana under Indian Penal Code sections 120B (punishment for criminal conspiracy.), 121 A (conspiring to commit the offences punishable by Section 121—waging war against the Government of India, or attempting to do so, and abetting the waging of war) and relevant provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
The NIA, so far, has filed charge sheets against five accused, including two Pakistani nationals, including one Meer Balaj Khan, who, the agency alleged, was funding one Akash Solanki through cryptocurrencies.
According to the NIA charge sheet, Solanki from Uttar Pradesh’s Firozabad was working as an Electrical Artificer Radio Apprentice (EAC) at the naval dockyard in Visakhapatnam and had confidential details of Indian Navy warships and submarines, which he passed on to a Pakistani intelligence operative working under the pseudonym, ‘Aditi Chouhan’.
Sources in the NIA said that during the investigation into the case, the roles of the trio arrested Tuesday also surfaced. However, the agency has, so far, not ascertained the extent and volume of information the trio shared with Pakistan intelligence operatives.
“They were working on a contract basis at these naval bases and shared sensitive information through several communication channels, including, sometimes, through social media websites, such as Facebook. They have been taken into custody and brought to Hyderabad for further questioning to unearth the extent of the compromise,” an NIA official said, requesting anonymity.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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