Recently, Mumbai’s Anti-terrorists’ squad (ATS), filed a chargesheet of more than 1600 pages on a DRDO Scientist Pradip Kurulkar. ATS accused Kurulkar, for falling in a honey-trap and leaking missile info to Pakistani agent. Kurulkar thought the girl was impressed by him and was chatting with her romantically. After several days of chatting Kurulkar started leaking the info to the girl who was a Pakistani Agent. This is the accusation of ATS, the case has yet to be registered in court.
This all started from June 2022, when Kurulkar got a message from a girl called Zara Das Gupta through social media app. He assumed that the girl was infatuated to him as the girl was talking sweet and used to call him ‘baby’. As per ATS, the two were in contact form June 2022 to December 2022. Just before the DRDO initiated an internal probe after his activities were found to be suspicious, he blocked the girl’s, Zara’s number in February 2023.
Kurulkar’s Case
According to the chargesheet, Zara claimed that she was interested in Kurulkar’s work as he was working on Brahmos and other similar missiles. She was more interested in his work rather than Kurulkar himself, she was asking more about the missiles, it’s ranges, testing results etc. After several months Kurulkar decided to block her and stop talking to her as she was acting suspicious. However, she tried to contact him through WhatsApp with different number asking why he blocked her number. The chat records also showed that he shared his personal as well as official schedules and location with her despite knowing that he was not supposed to share them with anyone. Later, ATS and other DRDO Scientist found out about Kurulkar and arrested him in May 2023.
Other cases
There have many cases of honey-trap in India where many Officers, Govt Employees and Scientists fall for this. One more example is when an DRDL engineer was caught leaking data on nuke-capable missiles in 2022. Another case was in 2022, when a government employee was honey-trapped by a Pakistani agent and when he was told that the girl, he was chatting with was a Pakistani agent he didn’t believed it. He was still to come to terms that the woman he loved and chatted with was a Pakistani agent.
Pakistani ISI
Pakistan’s ISI is the intelligence service in Pakistan. It is notoriously famous for its action both domestically and internationally. It’s not that Pakistan ISI only spy in India; they spy on their own citizens and politicians. They spy on their own politician to blackmail them with videos and photos. There are cases when a politician or journalist trying to speak against the Military being attacked and blackmailed for their actions. A Pakistani journalist has published an article about ISI honey-trap strategy and said that they have a wing for this honey-trap strategy.
How to prevent such cases from happening again?
Indian government should try to minimise these types of cases. DRDO can also ask their scientist to avoid or ban the use of social media apps just like the Indian army has done for their officers and soldiers. This could also prevent the leaking of information. Moreover, awareness should be spread among the masses by sharing this type of articles to prevent any future cases.
FAQ
Why was DRDO sacked?
DRDO is the Defence Research and Development Organisation in India, sacked its senior scientist Pradeep Kurulkar for leaking information to a Pakistani spy that honey-trapped him in social media. He was arrested in May 2023 by the Police, when they found his chats with the girl, the Pakistani agent.
Did DRDO share classified information with Pakistani agents?
A DRDO scientist in Mumbai was arrested by the Anti-terrorism Squad (ATS) for allegedly sharing classified information to an unknown girl on the social media. Later, it was found that the girl was a Pakistani agent that honey-trapped him virtually.
Did DRDO scientist leak classified information pertaining to security?
Mumbai’s Anti-terrorists’ squad (ATS), filed a chargesheet of more than 1600 pages on a DRDO Scientist Pradip Kurulkar. ATS accused Kurulkar, for falling in a honey-trap and leaking missile info to Pakistani agent. Kurulkar thought the girl was impressed by him and was chatting with her romantically. After several days of chatting Kurulkar started leaking the info to the girl who was a Pakistani Agent. This is the accusation of ATS, the case has yet to be registered in court.