Bhubaneswar: The Odisha Police would seek help from the Interpol for identification of a suspected female operative in the DRDO espionage case, a senior police officer said here on Wednesday.
The police on September 14 had arrested five former contractual employees of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) unit at Chandipur on charges of sharing defence information with unknown foreign agents, who were suspected to be from Pakistan.
“We would seek the help of the central agencies to track down the elusive woman ‘handler’ of the spy ring,” informed Crime Branch ADG Sanjeev Panda.
He further said that the photograph of the woman operative has been obtained along with footage of her video calls with the five arrested ITR-Chandipur employees.
The five accused allegedly leaked sensitive intel from the high-security defence establishment after being honey-trapped by the mysterious woman. She had proposed marriage to two of the accused and extended an invitation to one of them come to ‘her residence’ in Chandipur.
Read: DRDO espionage case: one accused received 38K from Dubai, IAF starts Interrogation
The five employees’ seven-day remand had ended on September 25. A team of Indian Air Force officials from West Bengal also interrogated the accused during their remand period in Cuttack.
The police had earlier revealed that the woman used a UK phone number to talk to the accused and the call was rerouted through several IP addresses to conceal its originating location. She stayed connected with them using seven Facebook accounts under different names, besides WhatsApp.
She had also managed to hack the mobile phone of one of the arrested for around eight months and kept tab on his activities.
Read: DRDO espionage case: 'Mystery woman' was in contact with all 5 accused, proposed to marry 2
