NEW DELHI: Group Captain Arun Marwaha, arrested for leaking secret information on national security, was posted in one of the most sensitive units of the defence ministry in an earlier assignment, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Marwaha is said to have told police that he worked in the Aerial Delivery Research and Development Division (ADRD) till March 2016. The ADRD, under the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), is involved in the highly sensitive airborne warning and control systems for the Indian Air Force (IAF), said a defence analyst who did not wish to be named.
Police will probe if Marwaha forwarded information from the DRDO. The defence analyst said in view of this revelation, the standard operating procedures (SOPs) of India’s security framework needed urgent revision.
Delhi Police arrested Marwaha on Friday, a day after filing a case against him under the Official Secrets Act.
The 56-year-old para-instructor is currently posted at the IAF headquarters as Joint Director (Operations
Marwaha ‘received intimate photos’
NEW DELHI: Investigating officers probing the role of Group Captain Arun Marwaha for allegedly leaking classified defence information, said on Friday he confessed to receiving ‘intimate messages’ and photographs from the two Facebook users — Kiran Randhawa and Mahima Patel.
Police said they suspect these accounts are fakes that were used to honeytrap him.
Marwaha, who was posted as the joint director (operations) at the Indian Air Force headquarters in the capital, is learnt to have told the police that initially, he started by sending his photographs and basic information about the air force to prove to the two women that they had indeed befriended an IAF officer.
Police said that Marwaha told them he never met Randhawa or Patel. They added that the photos on their accounts were reportedly of models and that both users appear to have deactivated their accounts after his arrest.
“Most of their WhatsApp chats were seductive text messages or photographs since December. Marwaha told us that they promised to send him videos if he sent documents related to IAF operations. He also said he did not ask why they wanted the documents,” said a police officer, requesting anonymity .
The officer added Marwaha’s case was markedly different from other cases of such suspected leaks.
“Usually, spies in the past have claimed they were researchers or were studying conflict studies. Marwaha’s case was different as he sent the images of the documents without questioning them. The persons chatting on the other end never identified themselves as spies but after a few days of chatting, they challenged Marwaha to prove that his claim of being an IAF officer on Facebook. Responding to this, Marwaha sent a picture of himself in uniform but the women said they were not convinced,”said the officer.
The officer said that Marwaha, then allegedly sent a defence document. The officer then started taking his smartphone into the Indian Air Force headquarters to take photographs, defying the no-smart phone policy.
Police have seized three mobile phones from Marwaha. A forensic analysis will reveal the number and nature of documents sent till date, said PS Kushwah, DCP (Special Cell).
Police said Marwaha neither received any money and nor was any offer made.
Investigators added that Marwaha, originally from Kapurthala, has had a reputed career in as an Air Force professional who was an expert in skydiving.
He regularly updated his photographs of skydiving. He was due to retire next year.
POLICE YET TO TRACE FB USER IN SIMILAR CASE This is not the first time, an IAF official has been potentially honeytrapped by the ISI.
In December 2015, leading air craftsmen(LAC), KK Ranjith was arrested for allegedly leaking classified information to woman named Damini McNaught, who had befriended him on Facebook.
The Delhi police crime branch said the Facebook user made Ranjith believe that he was chatting with a United Kingdom based media professional, who needed the information for an article she was working on. The police have not been able to trace the user of that account so far.