IAF officer honey trapped into spying for ISI, sent to police custody

NEW DELHI: The air force on Monday dismissed one its airmen for allegedly passing on sensitive information about a frontier base in Bhatinda, to a woman over social media. The dismissed personnel was brought to New Delhi on Tuesday under custody, as the case was handed over to the Delhi Police. The case comes close on the heels of Delhi Crime Branch cracking anespionage racket in which five persons, including a serving and a former army personnel and a serving BSF personnel, were arrested.

The Leading Air Craftsman (LAC), identified as Ranjith KK, had served with the air force for over four years and was posted in Bhatinda when he began contact with a woman, Damini, on Facebook in September this year. He began passing on vital information on radars, airfield markings, movement of aircraft and deployment of various units, a source in the air force told ET.

Ranjith was deceived by such a cyber-entity in the name of Damini McNaught who portrayed that she is working in an UK-based media firm and they required air force related information for their news magazine. The information was provided in exchange of monetary benefits, said joint commissioner of police (crime branch), Ravindra Yadav.

The air force began monitoring Ranjith’s activities on the internet over a period of three months in light of the evidence put forth by security agencies. “We found out that he was meeting unusual people and engaging in suspicious activity on Facebook,”, said an official in the know.

Once the air force was convinced of the breach of conduct, a court of inquiry was initiated against the individual. On Monday he was dismissed from service and handed over to Delhi police for further investigation. On Tuesday the ex-airman arrived at the Patiala court in New Delhi, for a hearing.

In another case the air force has caught a casual contractual labourer in Jaisalmer taking photographs of the Pokhran range that serves as a testing facility for weapon systems. The air force handed him over to the state police on Monday.