7 Navy officials among 8 held for ‘links with Pak spy racket’

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh intelligence officers, in coordination with their counterparts in central agencies and the Navy, claimed to have busted an espionage racket linked to Pakistan and arrested eight persons on Friday. The suspects -- seven Navy personnel and a hawala operator -- were produced before a special court dealing with National Investigation Agency (NIA) cases in Vijayawada in the afternoon. They were remanded to judicial custody until January 3. A statement released by Andhra Pradesh police said the state intelligence department launched an operation – codenamed Operation Dolphin’s Nose -- to uncover the espionage racket. Dolphin’s Nose is a hill adjacent to the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam that houses offices and residential units of the Indian Navy.

The operation was carried out in collaboration with Central intelligence agencies and naval intelligence.

“An FIR {first information report} has been lodged and seven personnel of the Navy, along with a hawala operator, have been arrested from different parts of the country. Some more suspects are being questioned...,” the statement said.

The seven men arrested in the spy racket were junior personnel and unlikely to have access to sensitive information related to operations or projects, two Navy officials in New Delhi said on the condition of anonymity. The sailors against whom FIRs have been lodged were posted in Visakhapatnam, Mumbai and Karwar. The navy is offering full cooperation to the investigation launched by the state police. The first Navy official said the sailors may have had limited information about the movement of ships, but irrespective of the nature of information they possessed and parted with, their involvement in the case was a matter of serious concern. They said it was critical to ensure that such incidents were not repeated.

A police officer familiar with the development said on condition of anonymity that the intelligence authorities received a tipoff about the racket a month ago, prompting them to put the suspects under surveillance. Andhra Pradesh’s director general of police Gautam Sawang said the suspects belonged to different parts of the country.

THE SUSPECTS, SEVEN NAVY PERSONNEL AND A HAWALA OPERATOR, WERE PRODUCED BEFORE A SPECIAL COURT IN VIJAYAWADA