India
Visakhapatnam Navy Racket Adds to Growing List of Honey‑Trap Espionage Cases
In Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh’s Counter Intelligence Cell (CIC) has identified 18 suspects and questioned 13 Navy personnel over allegations that maritime intelligence was shared with Pakistani intelligence operatives (PIOs). On Tuesday, the CIC announced the arrest of Navy sailor Pradeep Mukherjee, attached to the Eastern Naval Command, and Annam Sai Varaprasad, a contractual driver for the Navy. Investigators are examining whether details of naval assets and installations were passed to the PIO.
The case follows a similar 2019 operation, “Operation Dolphin’s Nose,” in which fifteen people—including seven Navy sailors and a Mumbai‑based hawala operator—were arrested for spying for Pakistan after being lured by women into online relationships. The sailors were recruited in early 2017 and later contacted by “three to four women” who introduced them to a Pakistani handler. The sailors received money from a hawala operator for their services.
In May 2026, a 44‑year‑old Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander in Delhi was arrested for allegedly sharing sensitive defence information and classified documents with a PIO after being honey‑trapped through social media. The officer was booked under the Official Secrets Act and taken into judicial custody in June.
Earlier this year, the Uttar Pradesh Anti‑Terrorism Squad (ATS) arrested two employees at ordnance factories in Firozabad and Kanpur for allegedly sharing confidential information with Pakistan’s ISI after being targeted through a fake Facebook profile named “Neha Sharma.” The Maharashtra ATS arrested 27‑year‑old engineer Ravi Vermaa, who worked for a private defence technology company contracted by the Navy, for allegedly passing restricted documents about a naval dockyard to a PIO. The alleged sharing occurred between November 2024 and March 2025.
In 2023, the Maharashtra ATS arrested DRDO scientist Pradeep Kurulkar, head of the DRDO’s Research and Development Establishment (Engineers) laboratory in Pune, after he was contacted by a woman calling herself “Zara Dasgupta,” a Pakistani intelligence operative. Kurulkar allegedly exchanged messages, voice and video calls with the woman and shared sensitive defence‑related information, including a classified report on the BrahMos missile project.
Other recent cases include the July 2022 arrest of army soldier Shantimoy Rana in Rajasthan for sharing classified information about his regiment and military exercise videos with two PIOs. Earlier that year, Delhi Police arrested IAF jawan Devendra Sharma, an administrative assistant at the Air Force Records Office, for leaking sensitive information after being honey‑trapped by a Pakistan‑based woman.
In 2018, BrahMos Aerospace engineer Nishant Agarwal was arrested for spying for Pakistan after being honey‑trapped through fake social media profiles. He was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2024 by a Nagpur court, but in December 2025 the Bombay High Court set aside the life sentence, finding the prosecution had failed to prove transmission of sensitive data to Pakistani operatives. His conviction for negligence in handling classified material, carrying a three‑year sentence, was retained.