Air Force officer arrested for leaking secrets to Pak spies
9 Feb 2018 6:12 PM GMT
New Delhi: Delhi Police on Friday said they have arrested an Indian Air Force (IAF) Group Captain, on charges of leaking official information to Pakistani spies.
The Special Cell of Delhi Police is currently questioning the accused.
Marwaha was handed over to the Special Cell's Northern Range on Wednesday, after being interrogated for nearly 10 days by the counter intelligence wing of the IAF, a senior police official said.
He has been booked under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) provisions and a five-day police custody has been granted by the court for questioning him, the official said.
Marwaha, who was posted at the Air Force headquarters, was allegedly leaking classified documents to two persons through WhatsApp.
The 51-year-old officer had befriended these persons through a social networking website in December last year, the official said.
A Special Cell officer privy to the investigation said that the Pakistani spies had befriended Marwaha in 2017, by posing as female models on the social networking website.
Using fake accounts on the website, the spies enticed him and Marwaha allegedly used his smartphone to click pictures of classified documents, pertaining to the Air Force headquarters, and then sent them to the spies through WhatsApp.
"They chatted regularly on WhatsApp and also allegedly exchanged intimate messages." the officer said, adding that after gaining Marwaha's trust, the "agents asked the officer for classified documents."
As per the complaint filed against Marwaha by the Air Force, he was caught by the counter intelligence wing after he was found carrying a high-end phone at the headquarters, which are banned there.
The counter intelligence wing is also probing whether he was part of a larger espionage ring. The IAF, however, officially did not comment on the matter.
Punishment under the Official Secrets Act entails a jail term of up to seven years.
Police suspect that the accused had been passing information to a Pakistani intelligence agency.
Cops are also probing whether Marwaha had any accomplices.
"The documents which Marwaha shared mostly dealt with training and combat-related air exercises," the officer added.
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