Delhi: Air Force officer arrested for allegedly sharing classified information with suspected spies

The Delhi Police arrested Indian Air Force Officer Arun Marwaha on Wednesday evening for allegedly sharing classified information with two women, The Indian Express reported. Marwaha has been accused of leaking classified information about the three new tri-service agencies in the field of cyber warfare, space and special operations.

Air Force Intelligence Wing personnel had caught Marwaha with his phone in the headquarters, an area where the device is banned, on January 31. Station Security Officer Squadron Leader Rupinder Singh at the New Delhi range of the Delhi Police’s Special Cell had lodged the complaint against the accused group captain. An FIR against him has been filed under the Official Secrets Act at the Lodhi Colony police station.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Special Cell) Pramod Kushwaha confirmed the arrest. “He [Marwaha] was produced before a Delhi court, which remanded him in police custody for five days,” Kushwaha told The Indian Express. The accused officer was lured by two women, who are suspected to be working for a foreign spy agency, the daily quoted an unidentified officer as saying.

“He befriended them on Facebook around three months ago. After talking to them on the social networking site for a while, they exchanged their phone numbers and started chatting on WhatsApp,” an officer said. Further investigation in the case is under way.

The Air Force Intelligence had initiated an investigation based on inputs that classified information was being leaked from the headquarters. “Marwaha was working as Joint Director (operations),” Singh said in the FIR. “During questioning, he disclosed before officers of Air Force intelligence wing that he was in touch with two women, and had passed on classified information about three new formations – Defence Cyber Agency, Defence Space Agency and a Special Operations Division – to them. He also shared a classified document about the forthcoming Air Force exercise with them, which is likely to help enemies and will affect the sovereignty and integrity of India.”