Defence
What The 'Honey-Trapped' DRDO Scientist Revealed About India's Agni 6 Missile Programme
DRDO-made Agni 5 missile (Representative image) (Pic Via Wikipedia)
The 'honey-trapped' DRDO scientist Pradeep Kurulkar who was arrested by Maharastra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on espionage charges shared details of various Indian missile projects with the alleged Pakistani spy named Zara Dasgupta.
The 59-year-old scientist, who held the position of Director at the DRDO's Research & Development Establishment (Engineers) or R&DE wing also promised to share details about the strategic Agni 6 missile.
According to ATS, Kurulkar was allegedly lured by Zara, an alleged Pakistani spy through WhatsApp, where she introduced herself to be working for a software engineering firm in the UK, sending him obscene messages and video calls.
According to the chargesheet, Kurulkar got attracted to her and shared confidential information of various missile programmes, including Agni 6 and BrahMos missile.
The ATS also shared some messages where Kurulkar is seen to be acknowledging his involvement in the BrahMos programme, when asked by the alleged Pakistani spy Zara.
Zara asks, "Brahmos was also your invention, babe…. ."
He replied in the affirmative, stating "the dangerous one...." adding that he has initial design reports on all of the BrahMos missile versions."
Kurulkar then states that he has kept a copy of the report ready and he will show them when Zara visits him.
He says, "I cannot send copy of that report on WA (whatsapp) or mail as it’s highly classified … I’ll trace and keep it ready when you are here. will try and show you here."
According to the ATS chargesheet, Kurulkar has also shared details about the Agni 6 launchers and their capabilities.
Agni 6 is a long range nuclear-capable inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) that DRDO is developing which is expected to strike targets at ranges of more than 6,000 kilometres.
Just like its older sibling the Agni 5, the Agni 6 missile is expected to be kept in a canisterised road-mobile configuration for a faster response time.
This makes the road-mobile launcher extremely important.
According to ATS, Kurulkar has shared details of the launcher and its configuration in the chats.
Further details provided in the ATS chargesheet indicate that Kurulkar may have also shared information on other sensitive technologies, including surface to air missiles, Shakti anti-satellite missile (ASAT), AK systems, Astra missile (the indigenous air-to-air missile), and the Meteor missile bought from the French with Rafale jets.
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