Pak-based espionage: NIA searches in 7 states to probe defence intel leakage

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has conducted searches at locations across seven states to probe the case of classified defence information leakage through a Pakistani espionage racket, according to an official statement issued on Thursday.

The premises searched on Wednesday by NIA teams were linked with suspects who had received money from Pakistan to undertake spying activities in India, it said.

"Extensive searches were conducted at 16 locations in Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Haryana in the case related to leakage of classified defence information through a Pakistani ISI espionage racket," the NIA statement said.

Twenty-two mobile phones and a host of sensitive documents were seized during the searches conducted by the NIA, which had in July 2023 taken over the instant case, originally registered in January 2021 by the counter-intelligence cell of Andhra Pradesh.

The case involved the leakage of sensitive vital information pertaining to the Indian Navy as part of an anti-India conspiracy hatched from across the border, the probe agency said.

The NIA had on July 19, 2023, filed a charge sheet against two accused, including an absconding Pakistani national identified as Meer Balaj Khan.

Investigations revealed that Khan, along with arrested accused Akash Solanki, had been involved in the espionage racket, the NIA said.

On November 6, 2023, the NIA filed a supplementary charge sheet against two other accused persons, Manmohan Surendra Panda and Alven.

While Panda has been arrested, Alven, a Pakistani intelligence operative, is on the run, the statement said.

In May 2024, the NIA filed its second supplementary charge sheet against one accused, Amaan Salim Shaikh, for conspiring with Pakistan intelligence operatives, it added.

(PTI inputs)