Hyderabad: A 31-year-old Indian Navy sailor has been arrested in Coimbatore for allegedly leaking classified maritime intelligence to a Pakistani female operative after falling prey to a honeytrap.
Sources in the Andhra Pradesh police told ThePrint that the accused, Pradeep Mukherjee, was apprehended following a months-long counter-espionage operation by Andhra Pradesh’s Counter-Intelligence (CI) unit and Tamil Nadu Police.
Investigators launched the probe after detecting suspicious digital activity linked to Mukherjee. He was placed under electronic surveillance for months to trace how the Pakistani handler allegedly honey-trapped him and sought to obtain highly confidential documents on naval assets and fleet data.
Mukherjee was arrested on Saturday while attending a management training course at INS Agrani, a naval leadership training establishment at Red Fields in Coimbatore. He was scheduled to spend a week at the facility, which trains personnel from the Indian Navy, Indian Coast Guard and international allied navies. Following his arrest, the Andhra Pradesh CI unit sought the Navy’s permission to move Mukherjee to Vijayawada where an FIR has been registered against him.
Mukherjee, originally from Kolkata, joined the Indian Navy in 2014 and was posted as a sailor under the Eastern Naval Command (ENC) in Visakhapatnam.
The ENC and the Andhra Pradesh CI unit have yet to make an official statement on the case. However, ENC Chief Public Relations Officer Commander Sujith Reddy confirmed to ThePrint that Mukherjee was “under the ENC at some point in the past”.
“The case is not currently under our purview. We are currently held up with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s visit to Hindustan Shipyard Limited (HSL) in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday. We may issue an official statement after the minister’s visit,” Reddy said.
Sources said Mahesh Chandra Laddha, Assistant Director General of Police (Intelligence) in Andhra Pradesh, is guiding the probe into the volume of maritime files allegedly transmitted by Mukherjee. The CI unit is also examining his financial transactions to determine whether he was offered monetary compensation for the information.
Given the sensitive nature of the case, sources in the AP police said the National Investigation Agency could step in to probe other aspects of the case and determine whether more people were involved.
(Edited by Chingkheinganbi Mayengbam)
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