Balasore: The ‘honey-trapped’ officer, Baburam Dey, of the Integrated Test Range (ITR) under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in the Chandipur area of Odisha’s Balasore district, was reportedly in constant touch with an alleged Pakistani agent for over a year through various social networking platforms.
Police, which have taken technical officer in the telemetry section of the ITR on four-day remand, confirmed that he passed on sensitive information to the Pakistani operative in exchange of pornographic content. The 57-year-old spoke to her almost every day after his duty hours via WhatsApp, Messenger and other social media sites.
The financial angle in the case is also being probed and the help of Jaleswar tehsildar has been sought for information related to Dey’s immovable assets. While police have already traced two accounts of the accused in SBI and Axis, help of financial investigation unit (FIU) that comes under Economic Intelligence Council has been sought to track possible overseas transaction.
“More information is likely to be obtained after questioning the officers on remand. All efforts are being made to collect the details of the financial transactions and assets of the arrested officer,” said Balasore SP Sagarika Nath.
The police, which had been tracking activities of the officer for the last one month, arrested him on Friday.
Notably, Dey used to be present during all missile tests and knew the details of missiles that the DRDO would be testing in Chandipur. Despite a ban on mobile phone inside the prohibited areas of DRDO, he allegedly carried his phone to the telemetry section that tracks missiles during developmental tests.
Three permanent and four contractual employees of the defence organisation are also being questioned by police in connection with the case, sources said.
In September last year, five contractual workers of ITR were arrested on charges of spying for a foreign intelligence agency, suspected to be Pakistan’s notorious ISI. The additional district judge’s court in Balasore had sentenced Ishwar Behera, a former contractual cameraperson with ITR, to life imprisonment, on charges of spying for ISI on February 11 that year.
