According to the charge sheet filed by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist Pradeep Kurulkar was attracted to the Pakistani intelligence agent who went under the alias ‘Zara Dasgupta’ and talked to her regarding Indian missile systems and other confidential defence initiatives.
The charge sheet was brought up in a courtroom last week against the accused who served as the director of one of the DRDO’s Pune labs.
Kurulkar is presently in judicial custody after being apprehended on May 3 for violating the Official Secrets Act. He was removed from his post two weeks before the arrest. The charge sheet stated that both Pradeep Kurulkar and Zara Dasgupta communicated over voice and video conversations as well as WhatsApp.
She identified as a software engineer residing in the United Kingdom and became friends with him by sending explicit messages and videos. Her IP address was traced to Pakistan during the inquiry, the ATS proclaimed in the charge sheet.
‘Zara’ tried to obtain sensitive and confidential information about the Brahmos Launcher, Drone, Unified Command Vehicle (UCV), Agni Missile Launcher, and Military Bridging System, among other things. The charge sheet unveiled, “Kurulkar, who was attracted to her, stored the classified and sensitive information of DRDO on his personal phone and then allegedly shared it with Zara.”
He reportedly discussed a number of programmes with her. The two were in touch from June 2022 to December 2022.
He barred her phone number in February 2023 just before the DRDO launched an internal investigation into his activities which were discovered to be suspicious. He soon received a WhatsApp message asking, “Why you blocked my number,” from another unidentified Indian number.
The charge sheet noted that despite being aware that he was not supposed to divulge his personal or professional schedules or locations with anyone, the chat records showed that he did so with her.
The 59-year-old was charged with violations of the Official Secrets Act (of 1923) sections 3 (spying) and 5 (wrongful transmission of information). A complaint from a DRDO vigilance and security office employee in Delhi resulted in the arrest.