Mumbai: A Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) employee has been arrested for supplying Indian fighter aircraft details to Pakistan’s Inter- Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, Maharashtra police said Friday. The man was supplying secret information about the manufacturing unit also to ISI, a police statement said.
The Nashik unit of the Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad (ATS) had received reliable intelligence about the man. The statement informed that the HAL employee was in constant touch with ISI. The ATS said that the accused had passed on very ‘sensitive details’ about fighter aircraft. He had also done the same regarding HAL’s aircraft manufacturing unit at Ojhar near Nashik.
An offence under the Official Secrets Act has been registered against the 41-year-old man, an official said. Officials of the ATS unit arrested him from his house in Nashik, the official added.
Three mobile handsets along with five SIM cards and two memory cards have been seized from the man. The phones and SIM cards have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory for examination, informed the official.
The accused was produced before court Friday. He has been remanded in ATS custody for 10 days, he said.
HAL’s Aircraft Division Nashik, established in 1964 for licence manufacture of MiG-21FL aircraft and K-13 missiles. It is located approximately 200 km from Mumbai.
The division has also manufactured other MiG variants like MiG-21M, MiG-21 BIS, MiG-27 M and the state-of-the-art Su-30 MKI fighter jet. The division also carries out overhaul of the MiG series aircraft and Repair and Overhaul (ROH) of Su-30 MKI aircraft.
PTI