Honey Trapped By Pakistan Spy, ITR Officer Arrested For Leaking Defence Information

An officer of the Integrated Test Range under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was on Friday, February 24, arrested in Odisha’s Balasore district on allegations of spying for Pakistan and sharing sensitive information with an agent from the neighbouring country. He had also leaked classified defence information regarding a missile test to a Pakistani agent.

The accused has been identified as 51-year-old Baburam Dey and works as Technical Officer-C in the Telemetry department of the ITR. He had been using two phone numbers. It was  revealed that he had been sharing classified defence information regarding the missile tests as well as photographs of the prohibited areas with an alleged woman spy from Rawalpindi in Pakistan.

Honeytrapped by Pakistani spy

According to Odisha Inspector General of Police (Eastern Range) Himanshu Lal, in return for sharing information, Dey used to receive monetary benefits. He also got pleasure through sexual conversation with the spy, the top police officer stated. He had exchanged several photos and videos with the Pakistani agent.

Police officials stated that Dey, arrested from Chandipur area of Balasore, used to be present at his assigned work at ITR at the time of testing of almost all missiles and cluster bombs by the DRDO and other defence agencies. He also maintains contact with the DRDO staff and scientists. He had access to sensitive and technical information and used to share the same using his two phones.

Balasore Superintendent of Police Sagarika Nath averred that the accused was in touch with the Pakistani agent for more than a year. She added that police are still trying to find information that was shared by the accused and the phones of the officer had been seized. The involvement of other people is being investigated.

Integrated Test Range

The ITR, set up in 1989, is one of India’s premier armament test ranges. It is used to test indigenous missiles as well as drones developed by DRDO. The range is spread over a range of 17 km along the coast where many tracking instruments have been deployed to cover the total flight path of the test vehicles.