HAL employee arrested for supplying fighter aircraft info to Pakistan

Mumbai: Maharashtra ATS arrested a Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) employee for allegedly supplying confidential information about fighter aircraft to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, reports said on Friday.

The 41-year-old accused, identified as Deepak Shirsath, was arrested after the Nashik unit of the ATS received a tip-off based on a reliable piece of intelligence.

According to reports, Shirsath was allegedly supplying secret information about Indian fighter aircrafts and their manufacturing unit to a foreign national. During sustained interrogation, the accused revealed that he was in constant touch with Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), the Pakistani intelligence agency, and was supplying confidential information about Indian fighter aircrafts and other sensitive details to them. He was also passing on information related to HAL, its aircraft manufacturing unit at Ozar, Nashik, the airbase, and the prohibited areas.

An offence under sections 3, 4 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 been registered against the accused. Three mobile handsets with five SIM cards and two memory cards have also been seized from him, which will be sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination.

The accused was produced before court on Friday and has been remanded to ten days’ ATS custody.