DRDO scientist leaked secrets to get intimate with Pak agent: ATS

The Maharashtra anti-terrorism squad has said that Pradeep Kurulkar, the Pune-based Defence Research Development Organisation scientist arrested on May 3 on espionage charges, shared sensitive details about India’s missile, drone and robotics programmes with a female Pakistan-based intelligence operative. According to the chats attached in the charge sheet, Kurulkar and the Pakistani operative would preface these serious conversations on defence issues with a playful “Babe”. In one of the chats attached in the 1,837-page charge sheet, the female Pakistani operative asked him whether the Agni-6 launcher test has been successful, to which he responded saying: “The launcher is my design babe… It was a great success.” These chats between Kurulkar and the alleged Pakistani operative date between September 2022 and February 2023. The chats appended in the charge sheet also indicated the persistence with which the female Pakistani operative engaged Kurulkar. At a point in one of their conversations, she asked him: “Any new parameters or any change happens… I heard that Agni-6 is also work in progress, uska test kab karna hai.” To which, he allegedly responded: “Karenge, thoda dheeraj rakho.” The Pakistani agent, according to charge sheet, shared three email ids with Kurulkar-- 26sweetpanda@gmail.com, dreamgirl56@gmail.com, and common158@gmail.com.