IAF officer who leaked info to ISI for sex chats arrested

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Police arrested Group Captain Arun Marwaha on Thursday on charges of passing on details of secret IAF documents to Pakistani spy agency ISI.

DCP (special cell) Pramod Khushwah has confirmed the arrest. Marwaha, 51, was allegedly using his smartphone to click pictures of classified documents pertaining to combat exercises at the IAF headquarters and then sending them across via WhatsApp.

The Group Captain had been detained by the Indian Air Force for investigation on January 31 after his activities were found suspicious.


Sources said Marwah had been honey-trapped online by the ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) through two Facebook accounts in mid-December. ISI operatives were masquerading as models through these profiles. After being lured through seductive conversations for a week or so, he was enticed to share information pertaining to IAF exercises.

Till now, cops have not found any evidence of a monetary exchange and say Marwaha was passing on classified information in lieu of sex chats. The documents mostly comprised of training and combat-related air exercises. Gagan Shakti was one such exercise whose details he passed on to the ISI, a source said.

While police remained tight-lipped, sources confirmed to TOI that Marwaha was produced before the court of Deepak Sehrawat at Patiala House and taken on five days of police remand by the special cell. He is being interrogated at the cell's headquarters in Lodhi Colony. It is also being probed if he had any accomplices.

The cops now aim to identify the Pakistani handlers and gather more details about the shared documents.

An FIR has been filed under sections 3 and 5 of the Officials Secrets Act on the complaint by a senior IAF official. Marwaha's phone has been seized and sent for forensic examination. He has confessed to have had access to many secret documents and plans due to his posting at the air HQs.