DRDO lab engineer held for sharing information on India's missile programme with 'Pakistani spy'

An engineer with the DRDO laboratory Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL)  in Hyderabad was arrested on Friday on charges of leaking sensitive information on India's missile development programmes to a suspected Pakistani spy, who posed as a woman working with a UK-based defence journal, the Telangana Police said.

The accused, Dukka Mallikarjuna Reddy (29), is a native of Visakhapatnam and was working as a contractual Quality Assurance Engineer of the Advance Naval System Programme of DRDL at the Research Centre Imarat (RCI) in Balapur. 

He was apprehended from his home in Meerpet during a joint operation by the Special Operations Team (LB Nagar Zone) of Rachakonda police and Balapur police, a statement read. 

He was charged under Section 409 (criminal breach of trust) of the Indian Penal Code and various Sections of the Official Secrets Act, 1923. 

The police seized two mobile phones, a sim card and a laptop from his possession.