Odisha CB Unearths Another Woman Operative, Mumbai Links In DRDO Espionage Case

Cuttack: Another female operative was in touch with one of five ITR employees arrested in the espionage case at DRDO’s Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Odisha’s Balasore district, Additional Director General of Police (ADGP), Crime Branch, Sanjeeb Panda said on Saturday.

“The suspect had established contacts with the accused, claiming that she belonged to the same district as the former. But it is too early to say if she is the same woman who had honey-trapped the accused,” he said.

The ADG further said that they had come across one ID through which contacts were established with the accused. “The woman claimed that she worked in Dubai and demanded Rs 40,000 from the accused on the promise to return the amount,” said Panda.

The accused had deposited the amount in two instalments in two different bank accounts in Mumbai on April 18, 2021.

“The amount was returned to the SBI account of the accused at Chandipur branch, the following day. We have identified two persons through whose accounts the money transfers were made by the accused. Our team will visit Mumbai for further investigation,” he added.

Notably, the Balasore police had arrested contractual employees – Basanta Behera (52), Hemanta Kumar Mistri (52), Tapas Ranjan Nayak (41), Sk Musafir (32), all of Balasore and permanent employee Sachin Kumar Chatta of Uttar Pradesh for allegedly leaking defence information to Pakistani agents.

After taking over the case, the Crime Branch had revealed that a mysterious woman operative had allegedly honey-trapped the five. She used aliases and even gave marriage proposals to two of them. She operated seven Facebook accounts and four of those were being handled from Pakistan’s Islamabad and Rawalpindi.