IAF man held for supplying info to ISI

With the arrest of an Indian Air Force (IAF) technician, the Delhi Police on Tuesday claimed to have busted another espionage network supported by Pakistan’s intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence.

This follows five arrests made in another espionage case between November 26 and December 6 from Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir and Siliguri.

Leading aircraftman (LAC) Ranjith K K was posted with Bhatinda Air Force Station. He has been dismissed by the IAF. “Ranjith has confessed to have shared information pertaining to a recent Indian Air Force exercise, movement of aircrafts and deployment of units,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

In return, Ranjith received monetary benefits in his bank account. He allegedly shared information through e-mails and internet-based text messaging services. Ranjith was arrested from Bhatinda Air Force Station on Monday.

“Information was received that serving defence personnel were being pulled into espionage network through a honey-trapping module,” Yadav added. It was revealed that a fictitious Facebook account of an unidentified woman was being used to identify, befriend and lure defence personnel.

Ranjith was deceived with a Facebook profile in the name of ‘Damini McNaught’. She posed as an executive of a UK-based news magazine. “IAF related information was sought in exchange of pecuniary benefits. The woman told Ranjith that it was for the magazine,” Yadav said.

As per the investigation so far, it has been assessed that Ranjith was befooled by cross-border spies. Ranjith had even received few Voice over IP (VoIP) calls on his mobile phone in which a woman with British accent introduced herself as Damini McNaught.

She even interviewed Ranjith and then assigned him the task of getting information. “She deceived Ranjith by saying that the information will be published and he will get due monetary benefits,” Yadav added. The method of blackmailing or deception was also deployed to extract secret and confidential defence information without revealing actual identity.

Ranjith’s arrest comes a day after a former Indian Army man was arrested in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer district for supplying sensitive information about the Indian Army to the ISI.
DH News Service