DRDO espionage case: Balasore SDJM grants Crime Branch to take five accused on 7-day remand

Bhubaneswar: The Crime Branch (CB) on Saturday had appealed Balasore SDJM Court to take all the five arrested accused on 7-day remand and the court has granted the order, informs CB ADG Sanjeeb Panda.

The five accused are Basanta Behera (52) of Jhampura, Hemanta Kumar Mistri (52) of Buanla, Tapas Ranjan Nayak (41) of Palasia and Sk Musafir (32) of Srikona and Sachin Kumar alias Chhata.

The Crime branch will interrogate the five accused regarding financial transaction, who else were involved in the case.  They will be brought from Balasore to Cuttack by the Crime branch special team. The special team consists of Cyber Inspector, Sub-Inspector and Addl SP.

If required NIA will also interrogate the accused and will seek co-operation from the Central team, informed Sanjeeb Panda.

Meanwhile, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Crime Branch have intensified probe into the alleged espionage case at Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) high-security Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur.

The accused were possibly in contact with a Pakistani woman and were being allegedly paid by her for providing secret inputs. The woman is suspected to be an ISI agent and the accused were leaking sensitive information of the DRDO.

A case was registered at Chandipur Police Station in this regard under sections 120-B (punishment for criminal conspiracy), 121-A (conspiracy to wage a war against India) and 34 (act done with common intention) of the IPC and sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act.

Also Read: Odisha’s Chandipur Espionage case: Another employee of DRDO arrested: Watch