Navy sailor falls for honey trap, arrested over classified data shared with Pakistan

An Indian Navy sailor accused of “transmitting” classified maritime intelligence to a Pakistani operative was arrested, officials said on Sunday.

According to official sources, the espionage operation involved a social media “honey-trap”.

The Andhra Pradesh Police Counter Intelligence (CI) cell arrested 31-year-old Pradeep Mukherjee on October 3 at INS Agrani, a naval leadership training facility in Coimbatore.

Mukherjee, a West Bengal native who joined the Navy in 2014, was actively posted with the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam.

At the time of his arrest, he was attending a management development course and had been at the Coimbatore facility for approximately one week.

A female Pakistani intelligence operative reportedly contacted Mukherjee several months ago. Over time, the handler allegedly leveraged the online relationship to extract sensitive data regarding strategic naval assets, fleet movements and the operational framework of the Visakhapatnam base.

The CI cell, a specialised unit tasked with countering cross-border espionage and terror threats, initiated the investigation after detecting suspicious digital footprints linked to the sailor. The agency subsequently placed him under surveillance.

Officials said the investigation is underway to establish the full extent of the information allegedly shared and identify any other links connected to the espionage operation.- Ends