IAF officer shared war plans, deployment details with Pak operative: Police to court

The Wing Commander, according to police, had been in communication over WhatsApp with the suspected operative from January 12 to April 1 this year when he was stopped and checked for carrying a smartphone to the office. (Express photo by Pavan Khengre/File)

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A Wing Commander of the IAF, arrested five months ago and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act, allegedly shared classified operational information including war-plan documents, drone capabilities, military deployment locations, movements of frontline combat aircraft and coordinates of sensitive installations with a suspected Pakistani intelligence operative.

Detailing this in a chargesheet filed in a Delhi court, police said the disclosure of such information potentially compromised critical military assets, exposed operational vulnerabilities and put national security at risk.

According to the chargesheet, information about the strength and structure of a secret drone unit, its operational capabilities, locations earmarked for deployment during hostilities and the movement of combat aircraft were also passed on to the suspected Pakistani operative.

The Wing Commander, according to police, had been in communication over WhatsApp with the suspected operative from January 12 to April 1 this year when he was stopped and checked for carrying a smartphone to the office.

The officer, according to the police chargesheet, “uploaded” a page of a “secret war plan” after receiving “a nude picture” from the suspected Pakistani operative and “even stated that for each nude pic he will provide a new page of (the) war plan”.

The chargesheet stated that the officer disclosed the strength and organisational structure of a secret drone unit, details of drone trials, the endurance of the weapon system and its targeting mechanisms.

The suspected operative, police said, sent malware applications which could have provided access to sensitive information stored on the officer’s devices and communications with his chain of command.

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The officer “fulfilled the task… to install some specific malwares/spywares in the ICT devices of his five subordinates, deployed in the unit under him,” police said.

The chargesheet also stated that the Wing Commander disclosed information related to the deployment of fighter aircraft in Leh and a military exercise at the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Suratgarh.

The chargesheet details the extent of communication between the officer and the suspected operative. “From the analysis of the WhatsApp PMP data, it is revealed that a total of 3,008 text messages (chats), 65 images, 65 reactions, 42 voice calls, 4 video calls, and 6 URLs were exchanged” between the officer and the suspected Pakistani officer.

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Sakshi Chand is an Assistant Editor at The Indian Express, based in New Delhi. With over a decade of... Read More