The Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Group Captain Arun Marwah on Thursday on charges of providing details of secret Indian Air Force (IAF) documents to Pakistani spy agency, ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence).
The arrest of Group Captain Arun Marwah was confirmed by DCP (special cell) Pramod Khushwah and an FIR has been filed under sections 3 and 5 of the Officials Secrets Act on the complaint by a senior IAF official.
Marwaha, 51, allegedly used his smart phone to click pictures of classified documents pertaining to combat exercises at the IAF headquarters and sending them across via WhatsApp.
The Group Captain had been detained by the IAF for investigation on January 31 after his activities were found suspicious.
According to sources, Marwah had been honey-trapped online by the ISI through 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.
According to a report, cops have not found any evidence of a monetary exchange till now and say Marwaha was passing on classified information after allegedly exchanging intimate messages. The documents mostly comprised training and combat-related air exercises. Gagan Shakti was one such exercise whose details he passed on to the ISI, a source told the paper.
While police remained tight-lipped, reports say Marwaha was produced before the court of Deepak Sehrawat at Patiala House and sent to five days of police custody by the special cell. He is being interrogated at the cell’s headquarters in Lodhi Colony in New Delhi and is also being probed if he had any accomplices.
The police now aim to identify the Pakistani handlers and gather more details about the shared documents.
Marwaha’s phone has been confiscated 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 headquarters.