Ex-IAF ‘spy’ to be quizzed on Pathankot hit

The dismissed officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF), who was arrested by the Delhi police from Punjab’s Bhatinda for allegedly sharing secret information with an ISI agent, was on Saturday remanded to the police custody till January 4 by a Delhi court following an extension plea by the probe agency.

The accused, Ranjith K.K., was produced before the court of metropolitan magistrate Dheeraj Mittal after the expiry of his police remand. The police told the court that during his earlier questioning, he had made a lot of disclosures and revelations in connection with the Pathankot terror attack.

Ranjith, who was dismissed from services on December 27, had shared secret information with a woman named Damini McNaught who was pretending to be an executive of a UK-based media firm. The accused allegedly shared secret information regarding recent Air force exercises, movement of aircrafts and deployments of various units in exchange for money transferred to his account. Damini told him that she needed information for a magazine article.

The accused had met her on a popular social networking site. Ranjith a leading airman with the IAF in Bhatinda. He was held following a combined operation by Delhi police’s , Military Intelligence and Air Force Liaisoning Unit.

The police have booked him under provisions of the Official Secrets Act.

Ranjith, a native of Malappuram district in Kerala, had joined the IAF in 2010. The police had said that with his arrest, the they came to know about a honey-trapping module, backed by intelligence agents from across the border, which creates fictitious accounts (cyber entities) on popular social networking sites, pretending to be women, befriend defence personnel and officials from security forces and allegedly lure them into espionage.