The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has made another arrest in connection with the alleged sharing of confidential and sensitive documents from an ordnance factory with a suspected Pakistani agent, said police on Wednesday.
The arrest follows a previous detention of Ravindra Kumar, an employee at the Ordnance Factory in Firozabad, who was found to be conspiring with a woman named Neha Sharma, an alleged Pakistani agent, to share critical documents.
According to the Police, the latest arrest involves Vikas Kumar, an employee at the Ordnance Factory in Kanpur. The police claim that Kumar was also in contact with Neha Sharma and was providing her with confidential and important documents related to the factory’s operations.
“On March 13, Ravindra Kumar, working in Ordnance Factory Firozabad, was arrested by ATS Uttar Pradesh, who was conspiring with alleged Pakistani agent Neha Sharma and sharing confidential and important sensitive information/documents of Ordnance Factory,” police said in a statement.
“In this sequence, ATS Uttar Pradesh received intelligence that Kumar Vikas working in Ordnance Factory, Kanpur, is also connected with the said alleged Pakistani agent Neha Sharma and is providing confidential information and documents of Ordnance Factory to the alleged Pakistani agent through WhatsApp. A case has been registered and the accused is being arrested and further action is being taken,” added the Police statement.
Earlier, Additional Director General (ADG) UP ATS Nilabja Choudhary following the arrest of Ravindra Kumar had said that the accused, working at the Ordnance Factory in Hazratpur, district Firozabad, was called to ATS headquarters in Lucknow and arrested following a detailed interrogation.
The official further added that the accused, Kumar, passed the sensitive defence-related documents to a woman handler identified as ‘Neha,’ a Pakistani intelligence operative.
“ATS UP and their associate agencies got information that there is a person named Ravindra Kumar who was sharing different confidential and sensitive information with his Pak ISI handler. So, working on this, our Agra unit did a preliminary interrogation of Ravindra Kumar, and he was called to ATS headquarters for a detailed interrogation, where it was proved that he shared very sensitive information through a handler named Neha,” ADG Choudhary said while speaking to reporters here.
“This ISI module has been around for a long time,” ADG Choudhary said. The official added that during the interrogation, it was discovered that the accused occasionally shared the information with the said handler.
“They honeytrap people and extract information from them, which poses a huge threat to national security. So, while interrogating him, we found out that he shared information with the said handler from time to time, which included the daily production report of the said Ordnance Factory (in which he was working) and the receipt of stores, other documents of criminal circulation, the stock that is about to arrive, the requisition, all were shared…,” ADG Choudhary added.
ADG Choudhary also requested all sensitive institutions to maintain a minimum level of security checks on their employees.
(This news report is published from a syndicated feed. Except for the headline, the content has not been written or edited by OpIndia staff)
