| Date | 3 May 2023 |
|---|---|
| Location | Pune, Maharashtra, India |
| Type | Espionage |
| Participants | Pradeep Kurulkar |
| Outcome | Ongoing investigation |
The DRDO espionage case is an ongoing investigation by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) in Maharashtra, India, into Pradeep Kurulkar, a senior scientist at the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). It is alleged that the accused scientist, Pradeep Kurulkar who is a director at one of the DRDO labs in Pune, passed confidential information to a Pakistani intelligence operative. [1] [2]
The case is a serious security breach, and it has raised concerns about the safety of India's defence secrets and nuclear weapons. [3]
In February 2023, a senior official of the Defence Research and Development Organisation, who was posted at the DRDO's Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, Balasore district in Odisha, was arrested for allegedly sharing secret information related to India's defence sector with a Pakistani spy, according to the Odisha Police. [4]
On 3 May 2023, Kurulkar was arrested following a complaint filed by a senior officer of the DRDO's Vigilance and Security Department. [1] A probe by the DRDO's internal standing committee and a forensic report, found that he had allegedly been in contact with a female Pakistani intelligence operative through WhatsApp messages, voice and video calls. The ATS also seized Kurulkar's electronic devices, which they say contain evidence of him sharing sensitive information with the Pakistani operative. [1]
Kurulkar has been charged under the Official Secrets Act, which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years in prison. He has denied the charges, claiming that he was honey-trapped by the Pakistani operative. [1]
Kurulkar holding a diplomatic passport had allegedly travelled to five to six countries. [1]
On 4 May 2023, he was produced before a special court in Pune where his ATS custody was extended for further probe till 9 May 2023. [5] And again till 15 May 2023. [1] [6]
On 15 May 2023, the special court extended his police custody till 16 May after the prosecution requested that Kurulkar's mobile phone required to be analysed. [1]
On 16 May 2023, the special court remanded DRDO scientist Kurulkar to a 14-day judicial custody till 29 May 2023. [1] [7]
On 30 June 2023, the Maharashtra ATS submitted a 1,837-page chargesheet before a special court. [8] [9]
On 7 December 2023, the Pune District and Sessions court rejected the bail application of Kurulkar. [10]
Suresh Kalmadi is an Indian politician and senior sports administrator. He is a former member of the Indian National Congress. He was a member of parliament from Pune until May 2014. He is alleged to have been involved in corrupt practices in relation to the 2010 Commonwealth Games during his tenure as president of Indian Olympic Association and chairman of Commonwealth Games 2010. He was charged with conspiracy, forgery, misconduct and under provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act and later arrested for the same in April 2014, but has not yet faced trial. In December 2016, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) named Suresh Kalmadi as its lifetime patron. However, he refused to accept the post until he was able to clear his name.
The 2006 Malegaon bombings took place on 8 September 2006 in Malegaon, a town in the Nashik district of the Indian state of Maharashtra, 290 km northeast of Mumbai. The Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) initially blamed the bombings on the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), but in a chargesheet filed in 2013 the NIA and ATS joint investigation and involved evidences pointed towards involvement of an extremist group Abhinav Bharat and Pragya Thakur who were falsely accused as per the NIA.
Pradeep Sharma is a former officer in the police force of Mumbai, India. Sharma attained notability as an "encounter specialist" with the Mumbai Encounter Squad and was involved with the deaths of as many as 312 criminals. On 31 August 2008 he was suspended from the Mumbai police on charges of corruption but was reinstated on 16 August 2017 after he was proven innocent of those charges. Sharma resigned from Mumbai police in July 2019 after a 35 year long career. He officially joined the ruling Shiv Sena in Maharashtra on September 13, 2019 and contested from Nalasopara seat in the Maharashtra assembly polls but lost to Bahujan Vikash Aghadi's candidate Kshitij Hitendra Thakur by a margin of 43,729 votes.

Narendra Achyut Dabholkar was an Indian physician, social activist, rationalist and author from Maharashtra, India. In 1989 he founded and became president of the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmoolan Samiti. Triggered by his assassination in 2013, the pending Anti-Superstition and Black Magic Ordinance was promulgated in the state of Maharashtra, four days later. In 2014, he was posthumously awarded the Padma Shri for social work.
Anjana Mishra rape case was a high-profile rape case that occurred in state of Orissa (India) in 1999. Anjana Mishra, ex-wife of an Indian Forest Service officer Subash Chandra Mishra, was raped on 9 January 1999. The case had created a furore in the State with Anjana accusing the then Chief Minister J. B. Patnaik and his friend former Advocate-General of Odisha Indrajit Ray of having played a role in the incident. The rape case spoiled the party's image. The party president Sonia Gandhi replaced the Chief Minister by Giridhar Gamang.
On 29 September 2008 three bombs exploded in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra of India killing 10 people and injuring 80. Two bombs went off in Malegaon, Maharashtra, which killed nine people while another blast in Modasa, Gujarat resulted in the death of one person.
Abhinav Bharat is a Hindu organization founded by retired Indian Army Major Ramesh Upadhyay in 2006 in Pune, India. It has a large base in Madhya Pradesh. The organization is believed to be the revived form of the pre-Independence era Abhinav Bharat Society. The activities of the organisations received widespread attention after Maharashtra Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested its member for the 2006 Malegaon bombings case. It has no relationship to the Mumbai-based charitable trust of the same name.

Mohammed Ajmal Amir Kasab was a Pakistani terrorist and a member of the Islamist terrorist organization Lashkar-e-Taiba through which he took part in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks in Maharashtra, India. Kasab, alongside fellow Lashkar-e-Taiba recruit Ismail Khan, killed 72 people during the attacks, most of them at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus. Kasab was the only attacker who was apprehended alive by the police.
Hindu terrorism, sometimes called Hindutva terror or, metonymically, saffron terror, refer to terrorist acts carried out on the basis of motivations in broad association with Hindu nationalism or Hindutva.
The 2010 Pune bombing, also known as 13/7 and the German bakery blast, occurred on 13 February 2010 at approximately 19:15 Indian Standard Time, when a bomb exploded at a German bakery in the Indian city of Pune, Maharashtra. The blast killed 18 people, and injured at least 60 more, including an Italian woman, two Sudanese students and an Iranian student.
The Adarsh Housing Society is a 31-story building constructed on prime real estate in Colaba, Bombay, for the welfare of war Widows and personnel of India's Ministry of Defence. Over a period of several years, politicians, bureaucrats and military officers allegedly conspired to bend several rules concerning land ownership, zoning, floor space index and membership getting themselves flats allotted in this cooperative society at below-market rates.
The 2011 Mumbai bombings, also known as 13/7, were a series of three coordinated bomb explosions at different locations in Mumbai, India, on 13 July 2011 between 18:54 and 19:06 IST. The blasts occurred at the Opera House, at Zaveri Bazaar and at Dadar West localities, leaving 26 killed and 130 injured. Indian Mujahideen is believed to have carried out the attack with the personal involvement of its co-founder Yasin Bhatkal.
Vasagiri Venkata Lakshminarayana popularly known as JD Lakshmi Narayana, is an Indian retired police officer and politician from Andhra Pradesh. He served as the Additional Director General of Police in Mumbai, Maharashtra. He is known for leading the investigations like OMC Scandal, Emaar Properties, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy Case, Satyam Scandal and Disproportionate Assets. He had previously held the post of Joint Commissioner of Police of Thane, Maharashtra and before that as Inspector general of police Rank under Y-category security for dealing with high-profile corruption cases. He contested from Visakhapatnam constituency in the 2019 Indian general election from Jana Sena Party. He has resigned from the Jana Sena Party in 2020.

On 15 June 2004, officers of the Ahmedabad Police Crime Branch and members of the Subsidiary Intelligence Bureau (SIB) of Ahmedabad shot and killed four people to death. Those killed in the incident were Ishrat Jahan Raza, a 19-year-old woman from Mumbra, Maharashtra, and three men – Javed Ghulam Sheikh, Amjad Ali Rana and Zeeshan Johar. The Indian Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) made allegations about the entire operation being an instance of "encounter killing". The state agencies and police claimed that Ishrat Jahan and her associates were Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) operatives involved in a plot to assassinate the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi.
Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav is an Indian national who has been incarcerated in Pakistan since 2016. The Pakistani government alleges that he is a spy for India's intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing and was arrested in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. The Indian foreign ministry says that he was kidnapped from Iran and illegally rendered to Pakistan.
The 2018 Bhima Koregaon violence refers to violence during an annual celebratory gathering on 1 January 2018 at Bhima Koregaon to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Bhima Koregaon. The violence and stone pelting by a crowd at the gathering resulted in the death of a 28-year old youth and injuries to five others. The annual celebration, also called Elgar Parishad convention, was organised by retired justices B. G. Kolse Patil and P. B. Sawant. Justice Sawant stated that the term "Elgar" meant loud invitation or loud declaration.
Umar Khalid is an Indian student activist, a former research scholar at Jawaharlal Nehru University, former leader of Democratic Students' Union (DSU) in JNU. He was allegedly involved in the Jawaharlal Nehru University sedition row and is an accused under the UAPA law. Khalid is also associated with United Against Hate, a campaign founded along with Nadeem Khan in July 2017 in response to the series of lynchings.
Pragya Singh Thakur, better known as SadhviPragya, is an Indian politician and Member of Parliament representing Bhopal and belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party. During her college days, she was an active member of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and later joined various affiliate organisations of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).
ISRO espionage case involved discredited allegations of espionage made by Indian investigation agencies in the 1990s against some scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Indian intelligence agencies and the Kerala police arrested some senior aerospace engineers on charges of attempting to sell confidential documents containing designs of indigenous rocket engine developed by ISRO.
In August 2022, eight former Indian Navy officers were detained in Doha, Qatar. Charges against them were not made public by Qatari authorities; however, media reports speculated that they were "spying for Israel". The detained men who worked in Qatar were allegedly involved in dubious activities connected to espionage. After long diplomatic and judicial efforts, their charges were commuted by December 2023, and all were released later. They reached New Delhi in February 2024.