Ex- IAF Leading Air Craftsman (LAC) KK Ranjith couldn’t have seen it coming. Working as a ‘defence analyst’ on the sly for a supposedly leading UK magazine was nothing more to him than a quick way to make some easy bucks.
A good looking lass thrown in, nights spiced up with dirty talk – He seemed to have it all.
Tuesday however brought him down to terra firma with his arrest from Bhatinda Air Force Station in a joint operation by Military Intelligence and the Delhi police.
Ranjith was summarily dismissed from service soon after his arrest.
.Befriended by one Damini McNaught on Facebook reportedly at the behest of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, Ranjith was honey-trapped into revealing sensitive defence data purportedly as part of his ‘defence analysis’ for a leading UK magazine for which Damini supposedly worked as an editor.
Hailing from the little-known village of Siyamkandam, Pullikal in Malappuram district, Ranjith was someone whom all the villagers were proud of.
Ranjith joined IAF after passing out from the Kottakkal Higher Secondary school, as he was the family’s only breadwinner after his father’s sudden demise. His father had been an employee of the Kottakkal Arya Vaidya Sala.
“Theirs was a normal family. They were all happy when he was recruited into the IAF as after his father’s death, there were some financial difficulties.
He shared a good rapport with one and all with nothing in his behaviour to arouse any kind of suspicion. The news of his arrest came as a real shock,” Jayachandran K -one of Ranjith’s neighbours- told The News Minute.
After the news spread like wildfire, Ranjith’s mother went into a state of shock and became bed-ridden since then.
Hareesh -his brother-in-law- firmly believes that Ranjith was trapped as the whole story was simply unbelievable.
“He has no criminal record till date. He had taken a loan to build his mother a house. If he had access to money, why would he take a loan? You can get all the loan details from the bank. How then can we believe he was spying for money? We are sure this is a trap,” Hareesh emphasized.
His family is unaware about Ranjith’s present status and was depending on newspaper reports for details.
His relatives and fellow-villagers did their best to discourage the massive media intrusion into their lives, since the news of Ranjith’s arrest broke out.
Relatives objected to any attempts to capture images or shoot videos by the local and national media which has been camping in the village for additional information.
Media was strictly forbidden from entering Ranjith’s house.