Visakhapatnam: In the high-profile naval spying case, a special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Visakhapatnam has sentenced two important foreign-linked spies to five-and-a-half and six years in prison.
Mohammad Haroon Haji Abdul Rehman Lakdawala from Mumbai got five and a half years in prison, and Imran Yakub Giteli from Godhra, Gujarat, got six years. Both were found guilty under Sections 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), which shows how dangerous they were to national security.
Now that this person has been sentenced, four persons have been found guilty in the complicated spying scheme that targeted critical Indian Navy sites. The NIA took up the case in December 2019. It showed that Pakistani intelligence agencies were reportedly behind a huge international spy network.
The investigation revealed that 15 people, including 11 Indian Navy personnel, had broken into naval bases in Visakhapatnam, Karwar, and Kochi. Investigators found that people used honey traps, illegal fundraising routes, and online lies to get secret information on Indian Navy ships, submarines, and movements.
Lakdawala and Giteli were found to have actively talked to Pakistani handlers, making it easier for payments to be made to recruited navy officers and civilian agents using money made from illegal trade across borders. In May 2020, Lakdawala was taken into custody. In September 2020, Giteli was taken into custody.
The NIA is still looking for other suspects, including foreign agents who are thought to be running the spying network from outside the country.