The National Investigation Agency (NIA) will assist the Odisha Police in the probe into an espionage case against four contractual workers of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
The accused, who worked at the DRDO’s Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur in Balasore, were arrested on Tuesday. The case was later handed over to the Crime Branch in Odisha.
It is suspected that the accused were honey-trapped, following which they shared classified information with foreign agents.
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During interrogation, they purportedly disclosed that they were in touch with a woman from Uttar Pradesh through WhatsApp and Facebook.
The investigators are verifying the identity of the woman.
In February, an Odisha court had sentenced one Ishwar Chandra Behera, who earlier worked as a videographer at ITR Chandipur on contract basis, to life imprisonment for espionage. He was arrested in January 2015 on the charge of sharing confidential information with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence.
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