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The 41-year-old assistant supervisor at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) final month on expenses of espionage, was lured by a lady, posing as a UK-based model with an curiosity in aeronautics, into sharing photos and important info on Sukhoi jets.
The ATS mentioned Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) created a fake social media account of a lady, who then lured him into sharing photos of his notes and HAL’s manufacturing unit at Ozar. The ATS on October 9 had arrested Deepak Shirsat. He has been working with the HAL for the final 16 years, ATS sources mentioned.
The sources revealed {that a} fake account was created by the ISI. An operative lured him by posing as a model from the UK. In order to sound real, the ISI operative would chat with him on a quantity with cellphone code +44, the sources added. “During their dialog, the girl allegedly informed him she at all times wished to do one thing associated to aeronautics however couldn’t.
She then requested him to ship essential info and photos,” mentioned an officer, including that these photos had been shared on WhatsApp and different social media apps. The accused, who had been in contact with the girl since December 2018, began sharing info along with her from January 2019, ATS sources mentioned.
After the ATS learnt that an individual employed on the HAL was supplying secret details about Indian fighter plane and its Nashik manufacturing unit to a foreigner, they began tracing the situation of the quantity on which the knowledge was shared, after they learnt that the quantity was diverted to Pakistan. “Through our sources we learnt that the information was going to the ISI,” an investigator mentioned.
The ATS then laid a lure and nabbed the accused from Ozar, mentioned an officer. After his arrest, three cellular handsets, 5 sim playing cards and two reminiscence playing cards had been seized and despatched to the Forensic Science Laboratory.
“A technical analysis will reveal what information he provided to the ISI and whether he was lured from other accounts as well,” an officer mentioned.
“We initially believed Shirsat was blackmailed into sharing information but during investigation, we learnt that the accused who wanted to meet the woman was willingly sharing information to impress her,” an investigator mentioned.
The accused has been booked beneath sections 3 (spying), 4 (communications with international brokers to be proof of fee of sure offences) and 5 (wrongful communication, and many others., of info) of the Official Secrets Act 1923.
© The Indian Express (P) Ltd
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