Indian defence scientist arrested after ‘falling in love’ with Pakistani, sharing classified info: NDTV
Pradeep Kurulkar, a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) scientist from India, was arrested on May 3 after it was revealed he was chatting with a Pakistani using the alias ‘Zara Dasgupta’, NDTV has reported.
Kurulkar, who was the Head of one of the labs in Pune, met Zara through WhatsApp where they had exchanged voice and video notes.
Zara claimed to be a software engineer based in the UK, and befriended the scientist by sending him obscene texts and videos, while Kurulkar revealed classified information about top secret projects like the Brahmos Launcher, UCV, Agni Missile Launcher and other things.
“Kurulkar, who was attracted to her, stored the classified and sensitive information of DRDO on his personal phone and then allegedly shared it with Zara,” the charge sheet said.
The two remained in touch from June 2022 to December 2022.
Chat records also show that Kurulkar shared his personal and office schedules and location with the spy, despite being strictly forbidden from doing so.