Honey-trapped junior engineer held for giving sensitive information to Pakistani intelligence agent
Mumbai, May 29 (PTI): The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) has arrested a Thane-based man working as a junior engineer in a defence technology firm on the charge of providing sensitive information to a Pakistani intelligence agent, who honey-trapped him on social media, officials said.
The 27-year-old accused, identified as Ravindra Murlidhar Verma, is a resident of Kalwa in neighbouring Thane city, an official said on Thursday.
"Verma was working as a junior engineer with a firm involved in defence technology. As an employee of the company, he had access to enter the Naval Dockyard in south Mumbai and he used to work at the naval ships," he said.
Verma was honey-trapped by a Pakistani agent who posed as a woman and befriended him on Facebook, he said.
He was found to have shared sensitive information about a vital installation with the 'Pakistan Intelligence Operative' (PIO) through WhatsApp from November 2024 to March 2025, the official said.
Based on a tip-off, officials of the Thane unit of the ATS took Verma into its custody on Wednesday, he said.
A case was registered against him and two more persons who were in contact with him, under section 3 of the Official Secrets Act that deals with espionage, and section 61 (2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
After interrogation, Verma was placed under arrest for his alleged involvement in the crime, the official said.
He was produced before a court, which sent him to the ATS custody till Monday, he said.
The ATS is examining his mobile phones and gadgets used in sharing vital information through the social media platform with the PIO, he said.
Further probe in the case was underway.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
