Balasore: Four contractual employees of Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Odisha’s Balasore, arrested on espionage charges, were reportedly honey-trapped for information on activities at the testing facility.
On Tuesday, police had identified three of the four accused as Basant Behera, Tulu Behera and Sheikh Musaq. They have been booked under Sections 120-B, 121-A and 34 of IPC R/W Section 3,4 and 5 of the Official Secret Act.
According to police sources, the fourth accused, who was later identified as Hemanta Mistry, had links with a woman who honey-trapped them to get information on missile tests and pass it on to Pakistani agents. She used to chat with them on WhatsApp via voice and video calls. The agents used fake names and transferred money in exchange for secret information.
They are learnt to have received Rs 25,000 to 30,000 each in their accounts.
Mistry was working as a DG operator in DRDO.
After tracking them for three days, a police team nabbed them from their respective houses in Jhumpura haat and Nuanai area in Chandipur.
The four have been forwarded to Balasore SDJM Court.
Sources said that police picked to more contractual workers from the testing range this morning and began their interrogation at the Chandipur police station.
Also Read: Four Detained On Charges Of Espionage From Chandipur ITR in Odisha
On February 11, Iswar Behera, a contractual videographer, was sentenced to life by a court for sharing sensitive photographs of ITR with Pakistan’s intelligence agency ISI. He was arrested on January 23, 2015. Behera had received money from Abu Dhabi, Meerut, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh for sharing information about testing missiles and vital installations in Chandipur and Kalam Island.
Chandipur has two units of DRDO – Proof and Experimental Establishment (PXE) and ITR from where a number of missiles and ammunition are tested.
