Thane engineer gave info about warships, submarines to Pak, got money in return: Cops

Mumbai: The Thane-based engineer, arrested on the charge of spying, shared sensitive information about warships and submarines to the Pakistani intelligence operative through sketches, diagrams and audio notes, and received money from various bank accounts in India and abroad in return, police said.

The 27-year-old mechanical engineer Ravindra Verma, a resident of Kalwa in neighbouring Thane, was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) of the Maharashtra police on Wednesday. According to police, he was lured into passing classified information after being honey-trapped by a Pakistani agent posing as a woman on Facebook.

"During the investigation, it came to light that Verma shared sensitive information knowingly and intentionally multiple times. In exchange for the information, he received money from various bank accounts from India and abroad," an official told PTI.

It was found that he had shared information about various warships and submarines to the Pakistani Intelligence Operative (PIO), another official said.

Verma worked as a junior engineer with a defence technology firm and by virtue of his work, he had access to the Naval Dockyard in south Mumbai. He would also go on board naval ships and submarines, he said.

"During his visits to the Naval Dockyard, he was not allowed to carry a mobile phone inside. Therefore, after finishing his work there, he used to share sensitive information about warships and submarines by making sketches or diagrams. Sometimes, he would share information through audio notes also," the official added.

The ATS suspects that he also shared the names of submarines and warships to the Pakistani agent, he said.

Verma had been in contact with the Pakistani agent since November 2024, he said.

He had received friend requests on Facebook from users with account names as Payal Sharma and Ispreet in 2024, which he accepted.

While chatting with him, both these account users posing as women initially portrayed that they were from India and worked on a project for which information about warships was required, he said.

After a few sessions of conversations, they honey-trapped him and started digging sensitive information about vital installations, he said, adding that Verma used to share all the sensitive information with Pakistani operatives.

"He was very much aware of what he was doing and to whom he was passing on the sensitive information. He was getting money in exchange for providing the information," he said.

A court has remanded him to ATS custody till Monday.