Hyderabad DRDL Engineer Arrested For Leaking Missile Information To ISI Handler

City Police have arrested a contractual employee of Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL) for allegedly sharing sensitive information with a suspected ISI agent.

The accused, identified as Dukka Mallikarjuna Reddy alias Arjun Bittu was arrested on Friday in a joint operation by the sleuths of the Special Operations Team, LB Nagar Zone, Rachakonda, Hyderabad and Balapur police.

The police have also seized two mobile phones, a SIM card and a laptop from him.

“On June 17, 2022, on credible information, the Sleuths of Special Operations Team, LB Nagar Zone, Rachakonda in a joint operation with Balapur Police, arrested the contractual employee of Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL) who has shared the highly secured and confidential information of DRDL-RCI Complex through social media to a suspected ISI female handler which is prone to create harm to national integrity and security,” the police said in a statement.

According to the police, the 29-year-old had joined the Patancheru branch of a Bengaluru-headquartered company and worked on a project from DRDL till January 2020. 

After the project, he directly approached DRDL authorities and got enrolled as a contract employee with RCI



Balapur.

He was working on a classified advanced naval system programme at the facility.

Reddy had mentioned on his Facebook profile that he was working with DRDL.

Friendship request from an employee of UK Defence Journal 

Reddy's troubles started with befriending an unknown user on Facebook in March 2020.

The user who went by the name Natasha Rao told Reddy that she was an employee of the UK Defence Journal and that her father worked in the Indian Air Force before shifting to the UK.

The two became 'close friends on Facebook and Natasha even agreed to marry Reddy.

In the meantime, Reddy had started sharing photos and text on the development of missiles at DRDL with his 'lover'.

Reddy had also shared details of his bank account with Natasha, but Police is yet to confirm if there was any monetary transaction between them.

Reddy was in touch with Natasha until December 2021, when suddenly the profile changed its name to Simran Chopra and stopped communicating with him.

Following his arrest, Reddy has been booked under sections 409 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections 3 (1) (C), 5 (3), 5 (1) (A) of Official Secret Act-1923.