DRDO scientist shared classified info with Pak Operative, chargesheet reveals

Republic TV has accessed the details of chats between DRDO scientist Pradeep Kurulkar and Pakistani Intelligence Operative Zara Das Gupta, to whom Kurulkar was attracted, and chatted with her about Indian missile systems among other classified defence projects. The Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police filed a chargesheet against Kurulkar on Friday in a court last week.

The excerpts of the chats between the duo

Zara: Babe I just have saw this are you working on this?

Kurulkar: Yep, I also work on SAMs

Zara: How long it will be complete babe?

Kurulkar: In next couple of weeks.

Zara: You will give it to Army or Air Force?

Kurulkar: Both Army and Air Force.

Zara: So testing and trials are completed?

The chats continue

Zara: Brahmos was also your invention babe?

Zara: This is dangerous one

Kurulkar: I have initial design reports 

Zara: Babeeee

Zara: It’s an air launched version na

Zara: We have discussed earlier?

Kurulkar: Yep

Zara: Rustom got protocol

Kurulkar: It is well decided in advance

Zara: How many rustom you have make

Zara: I think sif ak Ka lya itna struggle to nae hnga

Kurulkar: No of them we tried few dozens

Zara: Like we can say test was successful in Hyderabad

Kurulkar: No test was in (—-) I monitored it from Hyderabad and we collectively analyzed results and then it was declared successful

Zara: I think your test was successful

Zara: In Rustum 2

Kurulkar: Aare, there are no such projects and work continues.

According to the chargesheet, the information that the ATS got from Kurulkar's mobile, included the Composition of Material Used in Defense Project, a power point presentation that was shown at a defense event in Gujarat, information about the Aakash launcher, what was passed by the National Aerospace Laboratories. Some include the VTOL Anonymous Aerial Vehicle System. According to the chargesheet, Dasgupta used to send links related to projects involving Kurulkar, and Kurulkar would then share detailed information about those projects with her.

An intelligence officer, speaking to Republic on the grounds of anonymity, said, "In the investigation, it appeared that he was in touch with the Pakistani agent and shared several sensitive information which violates the official secret act, we also found that they never met physically although Kurulkar wanted to meet the agent in Russia but it never happened. In such cases, the Pak agents never meet. Several cloud shedding links were shared to Kurulkar due to which we suspect that there could be a possibility that his phone was hacked and the paki's might have got the crucial documents and files in the mobile which were stored and were never shared by Kurulkar."

ATS also registered the statement of several women who were in touch with Kurulkar. This was done to establish that he was highly attracted to women and thus, easily honeytrapped by Dasgupta. 

As of now Pradeep Kurulkar is in judicial custody and is lodged in Pune's Yervada jail.

The case so far 

DRDO scientist Pradeep Kurulkar was arrested on May 3 under the Official Secrets Act and is now in judicial custody. Kurulkar and 'Zara Dasgupta' were in contact through WhatsApp as well as voice and video calls, the chargesheet said. 'Dasgupta' claimed to be a software engineer based in the UK and befriended him by sending obscene messages and videos. During the investigation, her IP address was traced to Pakistan, the ATS said in the chargesheet.

The Pakistani agent tried to get classified and sensitive information regarding the Brahmos Launcher, Drone, UCV, Agni Missile Launcher and Military Bridging System, among other things, it said.

"Kurulkar, who was attracted to her, stored the classified and sensitive information of DRDO on his personal phone and then allegedly shared it with Zara," the chargesheet said.

He chatted with her about various projects, including surface-to-air missiles (SAM), drones, Brahmos and Agni Missile Launchers and UCV, it said. The two were in contact from June 2022 to December 2022, as per the ATS.

Just before the DRDO initiated an internal probe after his activities were found to be suspicious, Kurulkar blocked Zara's number in February 2023. He soon received a WhatsApp message from another unknown Indian number, asking 'Why you blocked my number?' The chat records also showed that he shared his personal as well as official schedules and locations with her despite knowing that he was not supposed to share them with anyone, the chargesheet said.