The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against journalist Vivek Raghuvanshi and former Navy commander Ashish Pathak in an alleged espionage case, reported The Hindu.

The central agency had arrested Raghuvanshi and Pathak in May for allegedly procuring sensitive defence-related information and sharing it with foreign intelligence agencies. They were charged under Section 3 (spying) of the Official Secrets Act and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code following an investigation into the leaks.

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Raghuvanshi is accused of having received Rs 3 crore from foreign sources. The chargesheet alleged that the journalist illegally collected details about the progress of projects being carried out by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, or DRDO, according to The Hindu.

These details included information about procurement to be made for the Indian armed forces, classified communications about national security and India’s talks with friendly countries, the chargesheet alleged.

In May, the central agency had seized 48 electronic devices, including laptops, tablets, mobile phones, hard disks, and pen drives, belonging to the accused persons.

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“A number of incriminating documents related to Indian defence establishments have also been seized,” the agency had then said. “The data stored in cloud-based accounts/emails/social media accounts belonging to the accused and others have also been recovered by the digital forensic experts of the CBI.”

The first information report in the case was registered by Delhi Police’s Special Cell, which had been tracking the case since September. The CBI took over the case on directions of the home ministry in December.

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