Coimbatore: An Indian Navy sailor has been arrested in Coimbatore for allegedly sharing sensitive defence-related information with a suspected Pakistani intelligence operative, officials said on Sunday. The sailor, identified as 31-year-old Pradeep Mukherjee, was taken into custody by the Andhra Pradesh Police Counter Intelligence (CI) cell at INS Agrani, a naval leadership training establishment in Coimbatore, where he was attending a Management Development Course at the time of his arrest.
According to police, Mukherjee was contacted by a woman claiming to be from Pakistan on social media and, after conversing with her for some time, is suspected to have trusted her. Investigators believe the woman used this online contact to extract naval-related information from him, and allege that Mukherjee subsequently shared certain details related to the naval base in Visakhapatnam with her. Police are investigating whether he also shared information pertaining to sensitive naval assets, ship movements, and operational activities at the base.
Mukherjee’s social media activity had reportedly come under the surveillance of Andhra Pradesh Police after suspicious digital patterns were detected, which led investigators to trace his contact with the Pakistan-linked individual before his arrest in Coimbatore. Mukherjee joined the Navy in 2014, hails from West Bengal, and was serving with the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam prior to attending the course. He is currently being questioned on what information he shared, with whom, and who else he may have been in contact with.
This is not the first such case. In March, Lance Naik Adarsh Kumar, alias Lucky, was arrested in Kochi, Kerala, over alleged links to Pakistan’s ISI, with police alleging he had shared naval photographs and sensitive details with Pakistan in exchange for money. Investigators are now examining whether Mukherjee’s case follows a similar pattern of information being extracted through an online relationship cultivated on social media. However, the full extent of the allegations and what information may have been compromised will only become clear once the police investigation is complete.