Drdo: financial angle under ATS scanner in DRDO “spy” case | News from India

PUNE: Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) officials on Friday said they were investigating, among other things, the angle of financial gains instead of information in the espionage case in which a scientist from a DRDO Pune laboratory was arrested on Wednesday.
“We have received an internal investigation report from the DRDO’s supervisory unit, which formed the basis of the registration of a FIR and the arrest. Now, we have to do our own verification, covering all aspects of the case,” one of the ATS officers associated with the investigation told TOI on Friday. The process includes verifying the arrested scientist’s bank accounts, he said.
“We know from the DRDO report that some information was shared by the scientist, but whether that information was confidential or open source would be determined once we obtain the state forensic lab report regarding an analysis of the electronic gadgets seized by the scientist,” said the officer. ATS sent two phones, a laptop and other devices to the forensic lab to extract images, files and other data/information shared with the Pakistani agent.
“On the financial aspect, we are investigating whether there has been a request for money in exchange for information or money has been deposited by the Pakistani intelligence agent into the scientist’s account as part of an aggressive plan to trap and blackmail him.” the officer said. he said.
Based on the evidence gathered so far, the investigators are not ruling out the possibility that the Pakistani intelligence agent trapped the honey and wired money as a way to trap the scientist to the point where he might feel helpless and submit to their demands.
The investigation so far has revealed that information regarding projects commissioned by the Indian Armed Forces or projects in the final stages and due to technology transfer and mass production has been “leaked to some extent,” the officer said. “The niche aspects of technology development have not leaked,” she said.
“The scientist has been in contact with the Pakistani agent since October 2022. We suspect that he has deleted some of the files and images shared from the phones in recent months. Forensic experts will try to recover the deleted data. This will allow us to know which ones how much sensitive information the scientist leaked,” the officer added.
Special prosecutor Vijay Fargade he told TOI: “On Thursday, as we argued for the scientist’s pre-trial detention, we had brought to the court that he had traveled overseas and the ATS wanted to look into whether he had any meetings with the Pakistani agent there.”

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