Two arrested for leaking info about Karwar naval base to Pakistani woman

KARWAR: A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) from Hyderabad has arrested two people for allegedly leaking information about the INS Kadamba naval base here to Pakistani agents. The arrested are Vetan Tandel of Muduga village and Akshay Nayak of Halavalli.

In 2024, a Pakistani woman, claiming to be a naval officer, had contacted the accused on Facebook and was getting information from them about the movement of Indian Navy warships, drawings and photos of the naval base. They were paid Rs 5,000 per months from the bank account of one Deepak.

After the NIA arrested Deepak and his associates, the honeytrap was revealed and on August 28, 2023, Vetan Tandel, Sunil of Todur and Akshay Nayak were arrested and their electronic gadgets seized along with their mobile phones. They had also been issued notices to present themselves for inquiry at the NIA office in Hyderabad. A joint NIA team from Bengaluru and Hyderabad has now taken the duo into custody again and has been questioning them since Monday.

Vetan Tandel and Akshay Nayak were as contract employees with Mercury Marine and Ultra Marine companies at Chendia in Karwar while Sunil was a canteen contractor at the Seabird naval project site who later became a driver. After medical examination, they were produced before a magistrate to bne taken to Delhi by the NIA team.