HYDERABAD: An engineer with the Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL) was allegedly honey-trapped by a woman suspected to be an ISI operative who lured him with the promise of marriage and forced him to leak sensitive information on India’s missile development, the Telangana police claimed on Friday.
The accused, Mallikarjuna Reddy (29), was arrested from his Meerpet house on Friday, months after his relationship suddenly turned cold with the Pakistani spy, who masqueraded as an Indian under the name of Natasha Rao.
A contractual quality assurance engineer, Reddy was working on a classified advance naval system programme at the defence lab’s RCI complex in Balapur. His clandestine activity was busted by the Rachakonda special operations team (SOT) which, along with Balapur police, took him into custody from his residence. The tip-off came from the intelligence agencies and Reddy was booked under the Official Secrets Act.
The engineer had put up a Facebook status message about his new job with DRDL in March 2018. Two years later, he received a friend request from Natasha Rao, who introduced herself as an employee of a UK defence journal.
“Reddy gladly accepted the friend request. She also told the engineer that she was the daughter of an IAF officer and had lived in Bengaluru. Subsequently, Natasha proposed marriage,” said SOT inspector Anji Reddy. Reddy too fell in love and, on the woman’s request, began sharing photos and text on then development of missiles at DRDL, a Rachakonda police official claimed.
The alleged transfer of classified information continued till December 2021, when Reddy suspected something was amiss after Natasha changed her name on her Facebook profile to Simran Chopra and stopped conversing with him. Police found that Natasha had also sought Reddy’s banking details but are yet to confirm if she transferred money.
“We suspect Natasha was an ISI operative,” said a Rachakonda police official. Police seized two cell phones, a SIM card and a laptop from Reddy, whose father was an officer with the Naval Armament Depot, Visakhapatnam.
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