Thane engineer held on charges of spying for Pakistan sent to judicial custody

Mumbai, Jun 5 (PTI) A court in Maharashtra's Thane on Thursday remanded mechanical engineer Ravindra Verma, arrested for allegedly spying and sharing sensitive information about warships and submarines to Pakistan, to 14-day judicial custody.

The 27-year-old junior engineer who worked with a defence technology firm was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) last week. He is a resident of Kalwa in neighbouring Thane.

The accused was produced before a Thane court on Thursday at the end of his previous remand.

The police did not press for further remand and the court sent the accused to a 14-day judicial custody, Verma's lawyer, Rajhans Girase, said.

The ATS had earlier alleged that Verma shared sensitive information about warships and submarines to the Pakistani intelligence operative through sketches, diagrams and audio notes, and received money from various bank accounts in India and abroad in return.

According to police, he was lured into passing classified information after being honey-trapped by a Pakistani agent posing as a woman on Facebook.

During the investigation, it came to light that Verma shared sensitive information knowingly and intentionally multiple times. In exchange for the information, he received money from various bank accounts from India and abroad, the ATS claimed.

As Verma worked with a defence technology firm, he had access to the Naval Dockyard in south Mumbai. He would also go on board naval ships and submarines.

The ATS suspects that he also shared the names of submarines and warships to the Pakistani agent. PTI AVI NP