TNS & Agencies,New Delhi, December 29
A dismissed Air Force official, who allegedly shared secret information with intelligence operatives suspected to be backed by Pakistan’s ISI after being “honeytrapped” into an espionage racket, has been arrested from Bhatinda in Punjab by the Delhi Police.The accused, Ranjith KK, was produced before the court and remanded in four-day police custody for interrogation. He could be taken to Jaisalmer and Gwalior for further interrogation. Ranjith was a leading aircraft man with the IAF at Bhatinda. He was dismissed recently and arrested after a combined operation by the Delhi Police’s Crime Branch, Military Intelligence and Air Force Liaisoning Unit (LU), Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav said.Ranjith, a native of Malappuram district in Kerala, had joined the Indian Air Force in 2010. He has been booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act, said the police.”With his arrest, the police have come across a honeytrapping module, backed by intelligence agents from across the border, which creates fictitious accounts (cyber entities) in popular social networking sites, pretending to be women, befriend defence personnel and officials from security forces and allegedly lure them into espionage,” a senior police official said.Ranjith was deceived by a cyber entity by the name Damini McNaught, who posed as an executive of UK- based news magazine. She interviewed Ranjith and then assigned him the task of getting the information. She deceived him by saying that the information would be published and he would get due monetary benefits for this, the Joint Commissioner said.
Honey-trapping module busted
- With the arrest of IAF official Ranjith KK, the police have come across a honey-trapping module, backed byintelligence agents from across the border
- The module involves creation of fictitious accounts on social networking sites. Pretending to be women, agents befriend defence personnel and lure them into espionage
- Ranjith was deceived by a cyber entity by the name Damini McNaught, with whom he shared Air Force-related information, in exchange for money
Dismissed IAF man held in Bathinda for ISI spying
NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s intelligence agencies are using fake social media accounts with female names to befriend, lure and sometimes blackmail India’s defence personnel into committing espionage, Delhi Police told a city court on Tuesday.
The revelations came after the arrest of former leading aircraftsman KK Ranjith from Punjab’s Bathinda airforce base for allegedly sharing secret documents with Pakistani agencies.
“In May 2012, the LAC came in contact with Pakistan intelligence officer Damini McNaught who cultivated the air force man by luring him to work as a defence analyst for a UK-based magazine,” cops told the court.
They said the 24-year-old single man – who was arrested under the Official Secrets Act on Monday — also had another female handler named Alphonsine Davis. Cross-border spies fooled Ranjith by calling his mobile phone over the internet with the other party introducing herself – in a British accent – as McNaught and posing as an executive of a UK-based news magazine.
During the brief hearing, cops said Ranjith passed “sensitive information related to the Air Force and other vital defence information through Facebook and email to Damini and Alphonsine”. For this, he got `30,000 in total in two separate payments of `25,000 and`5,000 made on October 13 and 14, they alleged.
But he may not have been the only one to be trapped. “A few serving defence personnel are being pulled into the espionage network through these honey traps. Some fictitious Facebook accounts of women are being used for this,” joint commissioner of police (crime branch) Ravindra Yadav told IANS.
The court granted four days’ police custody and said Ranjith would be produced before the court concerned on January 2.
