Marwaha chargesheeted for leaking classified data

“Group Captain Arun Marwaha has passed on classified information on national security to Pakistan-based intelligence service,” the Delhi Police has said in its charge sheet against him. The charge sheet was submitted in court on April 7.

The accused was detained by the IAF counter-intelligence wing on January 31 and arrested formally on February 7 by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police.

Exercises stalled

In its charge sheet, the the police states that the Group Captain has passed on 12 sensitive documents, including the upcoming ‘Ek Gagan Shakti’ Air Force exercise and ‘Human Aid in Disaster Relief’ exercise, which will see participation by the Air Force and Army in April 2018. The exercises have been stalled.

The charge sheet states that the accused, who was the Joint Director of Operations (PARA) at the Air Force headquarters, was first approached by agents posing as ‘Kiran Randhawa and Mahima Patel’ on Facebook last December.

Dating app

After exchanging mobile numbers, they shifted the conversation to WhatsApp, followed by a dating app which was suggested by a ‘woman’ friend with whom he was chatting as it promises secure chats. The app deletes chats each time the user logs out. The chats between the agents and the accused were allegedly explicit in nature. It was done to honey trap him, the accused confessed in a disclosure statement.

“We tried to trace the IP addresses of the Facebook IDs used by the ‘women’ chatting with him but it was found that the IDs were created and operated from Pakistan, and were deactivated after he was arrested,” a senior police officer said.

Forensic examination

“His mobiles phones and laptop were sent for forensic examination to retrieve data to determine which documents were exchanged from his mobile. We had seized laptops, mobiles and CDs from his possession,” added the officer.

During investigation, it was found that when the chat began, the accused sent a picture of himself in uniform to the ‘women’ but they were not convinced. After this, he sent a document pertaining to the Air Force to prove that he was with the force but the ‘women’ tricked him saying they wanted to see more documents and only then would they send the videos he wanted.