Andhra Pradesh Police arrest two, including Naval employee, for spying for Pakistan

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

Vijayawada, Oct 6 (IANS) The Andhra Pradesh Counter Intelligence Cell has arrested two persons, including a Naval employee, for allegedly sharing sensitive information about Naval and defence establishments with Pakistan-based intelligence operatives.

Annam Sai Varaprasad, a civilian contract driver engaged for Naval officers, was arrested in Visakhapatnam, while Pradeep Mukherjee, a Naval employee at the Visakhapatnam Naval base, was arrested in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

The AP Counter Intelligence Cell made the arrests after launching a coordinated operation on October 1 against an alleged espionage module involving 18 suspects, including 13 Naval personnel.

Code-named “Operation Firewall–2026”, the operation involved 12 Counter Intelligence teams deployed across 10 states and union territory — Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Goa, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Chhattisgarh and Bihar.

The Counter Intelligence Cell said in a statement on Tuesday that it received credible information that certain people in India were allegedly in direct contact with Pakistan Intelligence Operatives (PIOs) and their suspected involvement in an espionage conspiracy prejudicial to national security. The suspects were allegedly collecting and sharing the sensitive/classified information relating to defence establishments and strategic locations in Visakhapatnam and other parts of the country was collected and shared through encrypted communication channels.

The Counter Intelligence Police Station in Vijayawada registered a case on September 2 under Sections 61(2), 147 and 148 read with Section 3(5) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Sections 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967, and Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923.

Counter Intelligence teams worked in coordination with the concerned state Anti-Terrorism Squads, Naval officials and local police. They examined the alleged involvement of the 18 suspects and seized electronic gadgets following legal procedures. Two of the suspects were arrested after their role was established prima facie in this case, while investigation into the remaining suspects is continuing.

Annam Sai Varaprasad, a civilian contract driver engaged for Naval officers, was arrested for his involvement in sharing sensitive/classified information relating to Naval/Defence establishments with a Pakistan-based intelligence operative and received money in connection with it. He was sent to judicial remand until October 14 and is currently lodged in District Jail, Visakhapatnam.

Pradeep Mukherjee, a Naval employee at the Visakhapatnam Naval base, allegedly shared an OTP to activate a WhatsApp account used by a PIO, communicated with PIOs and shared sensitive information relating to Naval and defence establishments. After obtaining a transit warrant from a local court in Coimbatore, the Counter Intelligence Cell produced Mukherjee before the jurisdictional court in Vijayawada. He was sent to judicial custody until October 14 and is currently lodged in District Jail, Vijayawada.

The Counter Intelligence Cell said the investigation into the remaining suspects was continuing and that further details would be disclosed at an appropriate time, keeping in view the requirements of the investigation and national security.

–IANS

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The complaint has been filed in continuation of the original charge sheet submitted on December 18, 2024, against Venugopal Dhoot and 12 others. The Special PMLA Court had taken cognisance of the matter on February 10 this year.

The ED launched its investigation based on a CBI FIR registered on June 23, 2020, which alleged that Videocon Hydrocarbon Holdings Limited (VHHL), a wholly owned step-down subsidiary of Videocon Industries Limited (VIL), had availed a standby letter of credit facility worth $2,773.60 million from a consortium of banks led by the State Bank of India, purportedly for the development of overseas oil and gas assets in Mozambique, Brazil, and Indonesia.

The investigation allegedly uncovered a systematic diversion of these funds, amounting to nearly $2.03 billion, by Videocon Group promoters through a complex network of overseas entities.

“Sachin Dev Duggal, chairman of Swiss firm nHoldings SA and beneficial owner of Indian technology firms Nivio Technologies and Engineer.AI, was a key beneficiary of an alleged scheme through which funds from Videocon Industries were siphoned off and laundered through multiple overseas entities,” the ED said.

The agency alleged that the scheme began in 2008 when VIL started extending interest-free loans amounting to Rs 17.32 crore to Duggal-controlled Nivio Technologies India Pvt Ltd without a formal loan agreement.

A loan agreement was allegedly signed hurriedly on May 24, 2011, and the following day, an overseas Videocon entity invested CHF 37.9 lakh in Duggal’s Swiss company nHoldings SA at what the ED described as an inflated valuation despite the company being loss-making. Between 2011 and 2014, Videocon allegedly routed $37.07 lakh (around Rs 20.12 crore) to nHoldings SA and directly to Sachin Dev Duggal through a deliberate five-entity overseas chain.

Financial records of Nivio Technologies India Pvt Ltd show that during the financial year 2011-12, the company received Rs 35 crore from nHoldings SA during the same period when the Videocon Group was allegedly transferring funds to the Swiss entity. During the same year, the ownership structure of Nivio Technologies was altered.

Dugga’s nHoldings SA became the ultimate parent company of Nivio Technologies India Pvt Ltd, while Nivio Cloud Computing India Pvt Ltd was placed as an intermediate holding company. The ED alleged that through this restructuring, Duggal ensured that all entities in India and abroad remained under his direct control.

However, the end use of these funds remains unexplained. As per the financial statement of nHoldings SA for the year ending March 31, 2013, the investments in Nivio were fully written off.

Despite multiple summonses issued under Section 50 of the PMLA since January 2022, the ED said Duggal failed to appear before the agency and only submitted partial and allegedly evasive documents through email.

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Teachers in many schools had also raised concerns over the delay in receiving teacher handbooks meant to help them implement the revised curriculum introduced this year for students in Classes I to III.

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The department maintained that the revised demand had been addressed promptly and that all eligible students would soon receive the necessary textbooks and workbooks.

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Gujarat: Botad district wins national award for robotics-based voter awareness initiative

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Jinsi Roy said the initiative aimed to use emerging technology to make voter education more accessible and engaging, particularly for young and first-time voters.

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