PUNE: The state anti-terrorism squad told a sessions court on Monday that the Pakistani IP (internet protocol) address traced in the spying case involving a DRDO scientist was used for targeting a corporal (equivalent to naik in the Indian Army) of the Indian Air Force posted in Bengaluru.
The corporal recorded his statement under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure before a magistrate and was facing a court of inquiry, the ATS (anti-terrorism squad) told the court.
Earlier, inspector Sujata Tanawade, the investigating officer, and her ATS team produced the arrested senior DRDO scientist before the court of additional sessions judge P P Jadhav. The custodial remand of the scientist was extended by a day till May 16.
Tanawade told the court, "During the investigation, we found that the Pakistan operative had used an Indian cellphone number to send a message to the scientist. When we traced it, we found that the IAF person had been using that number in his friend's name."
On the judge's query regarding any link the corporal had with the present case, Tanawade replied, "The corporal has not been made an accused in the case. The Pakistani intelligence operative and the corporal were initially chatting on a social media platform. Later, they started chatting on a messaging application. We have found that the IP address used in the scientist's case matched with the one used in the IAF person's matter."
Tanawade told the court that the forensic science laboratory (FSL) was unable to open a cellphone, among the gadgets seized from the accused, and returned it to the ATS on Monday. "We got the scientist to open the cellphone and took screenshots of documents sent from it. We need to analyse this data. Also, we want to interrogate the witnesses. The scientist also used DRDO's Mumbai guest house to meet some people. We are yet to get details about the same," Tanawade told the court, seeking a day's extension of the custodial remand.
The investigating officer said, "We are carrying out a cyber analysis of the social media account of the Pakistan intelligence operative, besides analysing the call detail records (CDR) of the operative's cellphone number. Therefore, we need custody for further probe."
Defence lawyer Rushikesh Ganu submitted, "The phone has been in custody of the investigating agency from the beginning and there are no valid grounds to extend the custodial remand."
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