Odisha Police to seek Interpol help in DRDO espionage case

Bureau,Odishabarta

Bhubaneswar: Odisha Police would seek help from the Interpol for identification of a suspected female operative in the DRDO espionage case, a senior police officer here said on Wednesday. The police on September 14 had arrested five former contractual employees of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) unit at Chandipur on charges of sharing classified defence information with unknown foreign agents, who were suspected to be from Pakistan.

During the investigation, the police found that a suspect woman was chatting and making video calls with the accused on social networking sites like Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, using a UK mobile phone number. As per the established procedure, the Odisha Crime Branch would seek help from the Interpol to get details of the UK mobile number, which was used by the mysterious female handler, said Additional Director General (ADG) of the Odisha Police (Crime Branch) Sanjeeb Panda.

The Dubai-based bank account details from which money was transferred to the bank account of one of the accused has not been established so far, he said, adding, “It may be the account of any associate of the suspected woman.” One team of the Odisha Crime Branch is camping in Balasore and investigating whether the accused have received money from any other sources, Panda said.

Earlier, the Additional Director General of the Odisha Police had said the “mysterious” woman had made video calls to two of the accused in Hindi and she was in contact with the five accused through seven Facebook accounts under different names and profile pictures. The suspected woman operative had also given marriage proposals to two of the arrested accused and promised to visit the house of another accused located in Chandipur.

The Crime Branch had taken the five accused on seven-day remand. After doing further verification of the statements and technical data given by the accused, if required, the Crime Branch will seek further remand of the accused, he said. The police are now working on how to frame the charge-sheet as soon as possible in this case, he added.

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