TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ Defence Research and Development Organisation scientist Pradeep Kurulkar was attracted to the Pakistani intelligence operative who used the alias ‘Zara Dasgupta’ and chatted with her about Indian missile systems among other classified defence projects, as per the chargesheet.
The Anti Terrorism Squad of the Maharashtra police filed the chargesheet against Kurulkar, who was the director of one of the labs of the DRDO in Pune, in a court in Pune last week. He was arrested on May 3 under the Official Secrets Act and is now in judicial custody.
Kurulkar and ‘Zara Dasgupta’ were in contact through WhatsApp as well as voice and video calls, the chargesheet said. ‘Dasgupta’ claimed to be a software engineer based in the UK and befriended him by sending obscene messages and videos. During investigation, her IP address was traced to Pakistan, the ATS said in the chargesheet.
The Pakistani agent tried to get classified and sensitive information regarding the Brahmos Launcher, Drone, UCV, Agni Missile Launcher and Military Bridging System among other things, it said. “Kurulkar, who was attracted to her, stored the classified and sensitive information of DRDO on his personal phone and then allegedly shared with Zara,” the charge sheet said.
