In a joint operation carried out by the Central, state, and military intelligence agencies, a BEL employee was arrested here for allegedly passing defence secrets to Pakistani operatives across the border.
The accused, Deep Raj Chandra is a senior engineer working with the Product Development and Innovation Centre at Bharat Electronics Ltd, the public sector electronics company headquartered here. He is suspected to have leaked sensitive information relating to communications, radars, production systems, and security arrangements at the BEL in return for bitcoin payments.
Advertisement
The BEL, one of the Navratna PSUs, manufactures advanced electronic items for ground and aerospace applications and is one of the 16 PSUs functioning under the Ministry of.
Chandra has allegedly been passing the sensitive information to Pakistan via the internet for quite some time and receiving payments in his crypto currency account.
Local media reports said after Chandra’s activities came under the radar of military Intelligence, the Karnataka State Intelligence tracked him down.
During his interrogation, the suspect was found to have been relaying classified information to Pakistani operatives via Whatsapp, Telegram and email. Evidence of his stealing vital information from other departments of the BEL has also been found.
Preliminary internal examinations of the BEL have confirmed that Chandra had indeed relayed critical information relating to communications and radar systems, production systems, and security measures as well. His laptop and mobiles have been seized for further examination. Currently, investigators are trying to ascertain the extent of damage his espionage activities have caused to the country’s defence preparedness.
