Deepak Shirsat worked as a supervisory assistant at HAL and a Pakistani national posed as a woman on social media and was “caught like honey”.
An employee of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was arrested for allegedly providing details of Indian fighter jets to the Pakistan Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency, Maharashtra police said on Friday.
Deepak Shirsat (41) worked as an assistant supervisor at HAL and a Pakistani national posed as a woman on social media, police said.
The Nashik unit of the state’s Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) had received reliable information about the man, who was in constant contact with ISI, according to a police statement.
The man was providing secret information about Indian fighter jets and their sensitive details, along with information related to HAL’s aircraft manufacturing unit in Ojhar near Nashik airbase and the prohibited area within the manufacturing unit, according to the notice.
An offense under the Official Secrets Act was registered against Mr. Shirsat, an official said, adding that the Nashik ATS unit arrested him at his home in Nashik.
Three mobile phones, five SIM cards and two memory cards have been confiscated, he said. The phones and SIM cards were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination, he added.
The defendant was presented in court on Friday and has been in ATS custody for 10 days, he said.
The investigation so far has revealed that Mr. Shirsat was trapped by a Pakistani national, likely an ISI manipulator, who chatted with him posing as a woman, ATS DCP Vinay Rathod told PTI.
The Pakistani national told Shirsat that he likes airplanes, after which the HAL employee began sharing confidential information about Indian fighter jets with him on WhatsApp and other social media platforms, Rathod said.
HAL’s Nashik Aircraft Division, established in 1964 to manufacture under license MiG-21FL aircraft and K-13 missiles, is located in Ojhar, 24 km from Nashik.
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