A dismissed Indian Air Force (IAF) official was arrested by Crime Branch of Delhi Police from Bhatinda, Punjab on Monday for sharing secret information with intelligence operatives suspected to be backed by Pakistan’s ISI after being “honeytrapped” into an espionage racket. He was later presented in a Delhi court where he was sent to four-day police custody.
Ranjith KK, a non-commissioned officer, was working as leading Aircraft man with the IAF posted at Bhatinda. He was dismissed after the allegations levelled against him that he shared secret documents with Pakistan’s ISI were backed by actionable evidence. He will now be taken to Gwalior and Jaisalmer for recovery of evidence. The court has also directed that he be medically examined in every 24 hours.
Metropolitan Magistrate Punit Pahwa sent the accused to four days of police custody after the Delhi Police’s submission that they require his custody for further investigation and recovery of evidence.
The accused was arrested after a combined operation by Delhi Police’s Crime Branch, Military Intelligence and Air Force liaisoning Unit (lU), Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said on Tuesday. Ranjith, a native of Malappuram district in Kerala, had joined the Indian Air Force in 2010. He has been booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act, said police.
“With his arrest, the police have come across a honeytrapping module, backed by intelligence agents from across the border, which creates fictitious accounts (cyber entities) in popular social networking sites, pretending to be women, befriend defence personnel and officials from security forces and allegedly lure them into espionage,” a senior police official said. In the concerned case, Ranjith was deceived by a cyber entity by the name Damini McNaught, who pretended to be the executive of a UK-based media firm and claimed that she required Air Force-related information for an article in their news magazine from Ranjith in exchange for pecuniary benefits, said the official. Ranjith allegedly shared Air Force-related information, mostly pertaining to a recent exercise, movements of aircraft and deployment of various units, in exchange for money transferred to his bank account, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Alok Kumar said.
Ranjith had also received a few Voice Over Internet Protocol-based calls on his mobile number during which a female with British accent introduced herself as Damini McNaught and even interviewed him once. She later assigned him the task of getting more information, Kumar said. Ranjith was arrested on Monday and brought to Delhi on transit remand and produced before a court here on Tuesday. Ranjith allegedly shared secret information also through e-mails and internet-based text messaging services. The documents he had shared now have to be analysed to evaluate the actual damage and potential threat to national security, said an official privy to the investigation.
Police are trying to break the honeytrapping module and ascertain the identities of more security personnel associated with it, the official added. Ranjith’s arrest came close on the heels of the cracking of an ISI-backed espionage racket by the Crime Branch in connection with which five people, including a serving and a former army personnel and a serving BSF personnel, were arrested.
However, the police have not yet been able to establish any link between Ranjith and the other racket, headed by one Kafaitullah Khan, which was even found to have sources in the Pakistan High Commission here, said the official. While Khan was intercepted in Delhi while he was travelling from Jammu to Bhopal, three others were arrested from Rajouri district in Jammu & Kashmir and one from Siliguri in West Bengal. These arrests were again closely preceded by those of some alleged ISI operatives in Kolkata and Meerut.