Ex-Indian Navy Commander Ashish Pathak and defence Journalist Vivek Raghuvanshi have been arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with the leak of sensitive and important military and defence information including several other details of Defence Research and Development Organisation like upcoming projects of DRDO, future procurements of Armed Forces.
Ex-Indian Navy Officer, Defence Journalist Arrested by CBI
Raghuvanshi and Pathak were arrested under the Official Secrets Act on Tuesday following raids related to the investigation into the leaks, which officials warned could have an impact on India’s relations with specific countries. “On Tuesday evening, the journalist was questioned and taken into custody under the Official Secrets Act and criminal conspiracy, along with…Pathak.” “We are looking into a larger conspiracy in this case,” said an officer.
During the raids, the agency confiscated 48 electronic devices belonging to the two accused, including laptops, tablets, mobile phones, hard discs, and pen drives, as well as “incriminating documents” relevant to the country’s defence facilities. The data stored in cloud-based accounts, emails, and social media accounts belonging to the accused and others have been recovered by CBI digital forensic experts.
So far, data recovered from these devices has revealed that Raghuvanshi, who worked for a web portal called Defence News, was collecting confidential information about defence procurement from various sources and had agreements in place with several foreign entities to share the information. Following his imprisonment, Raghuvanshi revealed Pathak’s suspected role in providing him with confidential material. Pathak currently works for a private corporation. The agency has also discovered multiple incriminating communications between the two defendants. The investigators are looking at several cryptic tweets sent from Raghuvanshi’s account to see if they were a password to open the hacked documents.
To crack the SSB Interview, You can join our SSB interview live classes batch and we recommend you Enroll SSB INTERVIEW ONLINE COURSE. Trusted by thousands of defense aspirants.
