HAL Employee Arrested By Maharashtra ATS For Supplying Secret Details Of Indian Fighter Jets To Pakistan's ISI

The accused was supplying secret information about Indian fighter aircraft and their sensitive details along with the information related to HAL's aircraft manufacturing unit at Ojhar near Nashik.

(Representative Image/ Getty)

Mumbai: The Anti-Terror Squad of Maharashtra on Friday arrested an employee of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for allegedly supplying confidential details about fighter aircraft to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency. As per Police statement, the man was supplying secret information about Indian fighter aircraft and their manufacturing unit to ISI. "The Nashik unit of the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) had received reliable intelligence about the man, who was in constant touch with ISI," the statement said. The accused was supplying secret information about Indian fighter aircraft and their sensitive details along with the information related to HAL's aircraft manufacturing unit at Ojhar near Nashik. airbase and prohibited area inside the manufacturing unit, the Police said.

One HAL employee arrested by Nashik Unit of ATS for supplying secret information about Indian fighter aircraft & their manufacturing unit, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Nashik to Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), a Pakistani intelligence agency: Anti Terrorist Squad. #Maharashtra

— ANI (@ANI) October 9, 2020

Officials of ATS arrested the man from his house in Nashik. He has been booked under the Official Secrets Act. Three mobile handsets along with five SIM cards and two memory cards have been seized from the 41-year-old accused. The phones and SIM cards were sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination, Police said adding that he was produced before court on Friday, and has been remanded in ATS custody for 10 days. HAL's Aircraft Division Nashik is located at Ojhar, 24 km from Nashik and around 200 km from Mumbai. Established in 1964 for licence manufacture of MiG-21FL aircraft and K-13 missiles, the division has also manufactured other MiG variants including MiG-21M, MiG-21 BIS, MiG-27 M and the state-of-the-art Su-30 MKI fighter jet. It also carries out overhaul of the MiG series aircraft and Repair and Overhaul (ROH) of Su-30 MKI aircraft.