Pakistan espionage case: Thane engineer's police custody extended till June 5
A court on Monday extended till June 5 the police custody of mechanical engineer Ravindra Verma, arrested for alleged spying and sharing sensitive information about warships and submarines to Pakistan after the prosecution submitted that his colleagues need to be questioned.
The 27-year-old junior engineer who worked with a defence technology firm was arrested by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) last week. He is a resident of Kalwa in neighbouring Thane.
Verma was produced before a court in Thane on Monday at the end of his previous remand.
Police requested the extension of Verma's custody explaining to the court the need to conduct a probe at Verma's workplace and question his colleagues.
According to police, Verma was lured into passing classified information after being honey-trapped by a Pakistani agent posing as a woman on Facebook.
Police had said that Verma shared sensitive information about warships and submarines to the Pakistani intelligence operative through sketches, diagrams and audio notes, and received money from various bank accounts in India and abroad in return.
On Monday, defence lawyer Rajhans Girase contended that Verma was implicated and that police didn't possess concrete evidence against him.
He claimed that Verma's arrest was illegal as the ATS didn't follow the legal guidelines.
The lawyer submitted that the court had not seen any solid proof and that the blue diary recovered from him only contained work-related notes.
Regarding the large transactions in his bank account, the defence lawyer stated that ₹2,000 was sent by a girl named Preeti for his niece's expenses.
Arguing against the extension of police custody, he submitted that documents had already been recovered from Verma.
Verma worked as a junior engineer with a defence technology firm and by virtue of his work, he had access to the Naval Dockyard in south Mumbai. He would also go on board naval ships and submarines, the ATS had said.
The ATS suspects that he also shared the names of submarines and warships with the Pakistani agent.
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