New Delhi: The Gujarat Police arrested an employee of a private firm for allegedly sharing confidential information about drones and missiles manufactured by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with a handler of Pakistan’s spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The ISI handler lured accused Pravin Mishra through a fake Facebook profile of ‘Sonal Garg’ who claimed to be working for IT major IBM in Chandigarh. The conversation later shifted to WhatsApp, where Mishra shared sensitive information, the Crime Investigation Department (CID) said.
Mishra was nabbed Thursday from the Ankleshwar industrial area in Bharuch and has been sent to 14-day police custody.
The honey trap began almost a year ago, soon after Mishra left a job with a Hyderabad firm that supplied equipment and spare parts to defence establishments, including the DRDO. He subsequently joined a specialty chemical company in Bharuch which also supplied to the DRDO.
The investigation was based on intelligence inputs about several serving and former officials being targeted through a honeytrap module, the Gujarat CID said in a statement.
A source in the CID told ThePrint that Mishra revealed the specifics of missile technologies he had gleaned during his stint in the Hyderabad company. “It was one of the first companies that worked for DRDO on missile technologies… Mishra had a diploma in aeronautical engineering, he had a fair understanding of the technologies and specifics involved in missile technologies which he passed on to the ISI handler,” the source said.
“The honeytrap began a year ago, but Mishra started sharing information on WhatsApp around four months ago,” the source further said. He added Mishra’s elder brother was in the Army and was on the ISI handler’s radar for a long time, even before the honey trapping began.
Addressing a press conference Thursday, Additional Director General, CID, Raj Kumar Pandian said the accused passed on information related to drones. He said the ISI handler also attempted to extract information on India’s indigenous Brahmos missiles but Mishra had little knowledge of it as he had not worked directly with DRDO on these technologies.
“Pravin Mishra was targeted because he was working with a company that in turn was supplying parts to DRDO. The handler first honeytrapped him on Facebook and then moved the conversation to WhatsApp by using an Indian mobile number. Pravin Mishra was enticed and information was extracted from him,” Pandian told the press.
Pandian further said there were other individuals working with defence establishments who have also been targeted and that their names would be revealed after the due course of investigation.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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