An employee of the government-owned defence sector unit Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was arrested on Friday by the Nashik Unit of the Anti-Terrorism Squad in Maharashtra, for allegedly passing sensitive information to Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. According to the ATS, the accused was supplying secret information about Indian fighter aircraft and their manufacturing units in Nashik to the Pakistani spy agency. The accused has been sent to 10 days police custody. Reports say the accused has been identified as 41-year-old Deepak Shirsat, an assistant supervisor at the HAL unit.
The accused has been arrested and booked under Sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923. Officials have seized three mobile handsets with five SIM cards and two memory cards from the accused. The seized items have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for further examination.
In a press note, the Maharashtra police said, “Nashik Unit of ATS, Maharashtra State, generated a reliable piece of intelligence that one person was supplying secret information about Indian fighter aircraft and their manufacturing Unit, viz. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL), Nashik to a foreigner. The information was worked out and the accused, an employee of HAL, has been arrested by ATS from Nashik.”
The ATS said the interrogation of the accused has revealed that he was in constant touch with ISI and was supplying the secret information about Indian fighter aircraft and their sensitive details, along with specific information related the aircraft manufacturing Unit at Ozar, Nashik, the airbase and the prohibited areas inside the manufacturing unit, to the ISI.
Police said the operation was led by the ATS Additional Director General of Police Deven Bharti. ATS Deputy Inspector General Jayant Naiknavre and Superintendent of Police Ravindrasingh Pardeshi and Deputy Commissioner of Police Vinaykumar Rathod were among the IPS officers part of the operation. Among the state police cadre, Assistant Commissioner of Police Sunil Yadav, Inspector Mahadev Waghmode, Assistant inspectors Sandip Ghuge, Pratima Joglekar, Ekshinge, subinspector Sanap and head constables Sampat Jadhav, Pramod Ubale, Govind Jadhav, Sanjay Bhusal, Vilas Wagh, Dipak Raut and Sudam Sangle were involved in this case.