An Indian Navy sailor has been arrested in Coimbatore on October 3 over allegations that he shared classified maritime information with a Pakistani intelligence operative through a social media-based “honey trap”.
Pradeep Mukherjee, 31, was arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Police Counter Intelligence (CI) cell at INS Agrani, a naval leadership training facility in Coimbatore, according to official sources cited by an Indian news agency.
Mukherjee, who comes from West Bengal, was attending a management development course at the facility and had spent around a week there before his arrest. He joined the Indian Navy in 2014 and had served with the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam.
Investigators have alleged that a female Pakistani intelligence operative contacted Mukherjee online several months ago. They alleged that the contact was used to obtain information about strategic naval assets, fleet movements and the operational setup at the Visakhapatnam base.
The Counter Intelligence cell began investigating after it detected suspicious digital activity linked to Mukherjee. Investigators later kept him under surveillance before taking him into custody. He will be produced before a court at Vijayawada on October 5, sources said.
