DRDO Scientist Honey-trapped into Sharing Details of India’s Missile Programmes

PUNE: The Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) stated that Pune-based DRDO scientist Pradeep Kurulkar, who was arrested on espionage charges on May 3, had shared sensitive information regarding India’s missile, drone and robotics programmes with a Pakistan-based female intelligence operative.

The ATS claimed in its charge sheet submitted to a special court on June 30, that it uncovered chats between the scientist and the Pakistani operative it termed “explosive”. 60 year-old Kurulkar was director of research and development at DRDO when he shared the classified information with the woman with the intention to “establish intimate relations with her”, according to the chargesheet.

It also said that the alleged Pakistani secret agent created numerous fake social media accounts under assumed names to engage with Kurulkar. Two of the names used by her were Zara Dasgupta and Juhi Arora.

The said operative also created accounts on messaging apps using these names with two different phone numbers that started with the +44 London code. Kurulkar disclosed details about the in-development Meteor missile at DRDO in his messages with the assumed Zara Dasgupta. He also talked about the Brahmos missiles, Rafael, Akash and Astra missile systems, including the Agni-6 missile launcher which he was involved in developing.

Probably in order to impress his female interlocutor, Kurulkar also disclosed about DRDO’s ongoing work on the Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle, the Bharat Quadcopter, and the medium altitude long-endurance unmanned combat air vehicle Rustom, under development at DRDO.

The chats attached with the charge sheet also revealed that Kurulkar and the Pakistani operative would start off these serious conversations on defense issues with a playful “Babe”.

Although the ATS chargesheet mentioned the information sought by the so-called Zara Dasgupta from him, his responses containing defense details were submitted in a sealed envelope to the special court.

It was also revealed in the charge sheet that Kurulkar, the husband of a doctor, bragged about his work. One of the chats in the 1,837-page charge sheet, refers to his response “The launcher is my design babe… It was a great success,” when the female Pak operative asked him about the Agni-6 launcher test.

These chats between Kurulkar and the alleged Pakistani operative took place between September 2022 and February 2023. It was in March that DRDO told the Maharashtra ATS about Kurulkar’s suspicious activities and he was arrested as a result.

According to charge sheet, the Pakistani agent shared with Kurulkar three email ids, 26sweetpanda@gmail.com, dreamgirl56@gmail.com, and common158@gmail.com. She also shared the passwords for these email ids to gain his trust, and then asked him to download two apps on his mobile, which he complied with.

“By using the app, there might be a chance of a malware been inserted in the mobile phone of the accused,” said the charge sheet. In the forensic analysis of Kurular’s phone, DRDO experts in fact found a malware and reported this to ATS.

ATS charged that, such was the familiarity that developed over time between Kurulkar and the Pakistani operative that he would often talk about his everyday life with her.

“Despite knowing that an enemy nation can seek more information and specific information related to the CEO’s working place and the nature of work and the equipment he manufactured for the Armed forces, Kurulkar shared the formation with the operative,” the chargesheet said.

It is mentioned in the chargesheet that the email id provided by the operative had a recovery mobile number that was traced to Pakistan-based Nayatel in Islamabad, while its IP address belonged to Pakistan Telecommunication Limited.

Kurulkar was arrested by the ATS on May 3. He was charged with espionage and wrongful communication with an agent from a hostile neighbouring country. He is presently lodged in Pune’s Yerwada jail. So far, ATS has examined 203 witnesses as part of its investigation into the case.

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