IAF kept tab on 'spy' for four months

Vishnu Sukumaran, New Delhi, Dec 30, 2015, DHNS:

He will be taken to R'than for further interrogation

Delhi Police now plan to take arrested Indian Air Force technician to Rajasthan in the probe to unearth the entire Inter-Services Intelligence espionage network. Sources said IAF had been monitoring leading aircraftman (LAC) Ranjith K K for the last three-four months.

Police said he was caught red-handed while giving out vital information. Ranjith hails from Kerala’s Malappuram district and joined IAF in 2010. He was nabbed after a combined operation conducted by Delhi Police Crime Branch’s military intelligence unit and Air Force Liaisoning Unit.

“Ranjith has been booked under provisions of Official Secrets Act. We will take him out of the capital for interrogation,” said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav. He will also be jointly interrogated by the IAF and Intelligence Bureau.

Sources said Ranjith will be taken to Rajasthan’s Gwalior and Jaisalmer districts. Gwalior is the biggest station of IAF fighter jets. It is alleged that he recently shared photographs of two IAF bases.

“The documents shared by Ranjith will be analysed to evaluate the damage and potential threat to national security,” Yadav added.

The Jaisalmer link is the arrest of a former Indian Army man and detention of a revenue inspector on Sunday for supplying ISI with sensitive information about Indian Army. Gordhan Singh Rathore’s leaks included the Indian Army’s recently held war exercises. His son is also serving the Indian Army and posted in Ahmedabad.

Ranjith claimed that the motivating factor was money, but the initial probe has revealed that a woman had lured him and he was then blackmailed. His Facebook posts and some videos are being analysed.

Ranjith’s interrogation is also likely to ascertain the identities of more defence personnel associated with the network. Police, however, have not been able to establish any link between Ranjith and the ISI network busted last month.

That network was headed by a man named Kafaitullah Khan, which was even found to have sources in the Pakistan High Commission in India.

On Tuesday, a Delhi court remanded Ranjeet to four-day police custody. Delhi Police had sought five days.