Bhubaneswar Nov 7 : A new twist has arrived in the DRDO espionage case, the investigating agency has stumbled upon the link of another woman operative who had financial transactions with one of the five accused persons.<\/p>\n
According to crime branch the woman had developed online friendship with the accused after identifying herself as a native of Balasore who worked in Dubai. She then sought for financial help and received money in two installments ,\u00a0 which she returned in a day.<\/p>\n
The accused had transferred Rs 30,000 and Rs 10,000 to two Mumbai-based bank accounts as suggested by the woman on April 18. The amount was returned to the SBI account of the accused the next day.<\/p>\n
Panda said the two account holders with whom the money transfers were made have been identified and a team of investigating officials will soon visit Mumbai to inquire whether they are part of the conspiracy.<\/p>\n
“During investigation we came to know that cash was deposited in the SBI account. Since the identity of the woman operative has not been established, it will be difficult to say she is the same agent who had honey-trapped the accused persons to extract defence secrets,” he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, another accused was found to have received Rs 38,000 in two installments and a part payment (Rs 24,000) was transferred to his bank account through Lulu International Exchange based at Dubai.<\/p>\n
Establishing the link of Pakistan in the DRDO espionage case, the Crime Branch had claimed that the woman agent was operating three social media accounts from Islamabad and one from Rawalpindi through proxy IPs of India, US, UK and Germany.<\/p>\n
While the probing agency has moved the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) for information on internet domains used by the Pakistani agent, the transaction details that surfaced recently will be an added advantage for zeroing in on the woman.<\/p>\n