Pakistani spy honey-traps Indian engineer, acquires details of Indian missile development
The matter started off with a friend request on Facebook from a user named 'Natasha Rao.
An Indian engineer, working for a sensitive organization, was honey-trapped by a purported female spy from Pakistan. She was also able to successfully acquire details of Indian missile development from the engineer.
29-year-old Mallikarjuna Reddy was lured by the woman over a ‘promise’ of marriage after the two got in contact over Facebook. Reddy, an employee at the Defence Research and Development Laboratory, was working on an advanced naval system program at the time.
The matter started off with a friend request on Facebook from a user named ‘Natasha Rao.’ She told him that she was an employee at a UK defense journal. After he accepted the request, Rao told him that her father served in the Indian Air Force (AIF). The two then ‘fell in love,’ and the woman not only proposed to Reddy but also asked him about the privy details of the secret program he was working on.
The sharing of sensitive information continued for over a year, and eventually, the bond between them went cold. Natasha then changed her name on Facebook to Simran Chopra.
However, it is not the first time an incident like this occurred. Prior to this, an IAF officer was apprehended in Delhi in 2018 on charges of leaking classified information. Group Captain Arun Marwaha was caught leaking documents to two agents who were pretending to be a woman. The officer was then charged under the Official Secrets Act.
What are your views on this? Share in the comments bar below.
