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Espionage Case
A National Investigation Agency (NIA) court on Tuesday sentenced two more accused in the Pakistan-linked Visakhapatnam Navy espionage case to simple imprisonment (SI), along with a fine. The accused, identified as Ashok Kumar and Vikas Kumar, hailing from Rajasthan's Jhunjhunu and Alwar districts, respectively, will have to undergo SI of 5 years and 11 months, a statement issued by the NIA said. They also face an additional SI of one year in the event of default of payment of a Rs 5,000 fine, imposed by the NIA special court at Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh), it said. With this, NIA has successfully secured the conviction of eight of the 15 accused arrested in the case till date. Ashok and Vikas were arrested in December 2019 from Mumbai (Maharashtra) and Karwar (Karnataka), respectively. NIA had, in June 2020, chargesheeted 14 accused persons, and subsequently filed a supplementary charge sheet against one more accused in March 2021. A total of 15 accused persons have been arres
Prosecutors filed new espionage charges against Istanbul's jailed mayor on Monday, intensifying the judicial pressure on the opposition politician seen as a top rival to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The new charges against Ekrem Imamoglu stem from an investigation launched last week into alleged links between his political campaign and a businessman arrested in July for reportedly carrying out intelligence activities on behalf of foreign governments. Imamoglu's former campaign manager, Necati Ozkan, and journalist Merdan Yanardag were also charged. The state-run Anadolu Agency said Imamoglu who his already in pretrial detention on corruption charges is suspected, among other things, of transferring personal data of Istanbul residents as part of an effort to secure international funding for his campaign. Imamoglu rejected the accusations as nonsense in a statement posted on social media. Even the claim that I burned down Rome would have been more credible than this nonsense, .
A Hisar court on Monday extended till September 3, the judicial custody of YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra, who was arrested in May on suspicion of espionage. Melhotra appeared before judicial magistrate (first class) Sunil Kumar, who remanded her to judicial custody till September 3, her lawyer Kumar Mukesh said. Malhotra, who hails from Hisar and ran a YouTube channel "Travel with JO", was arrested by Hisar Police on May 16. She was arrested at the New Aggarsain Extension and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). On June 9, a court rejected her regular bail plea. Police had then opposed the bail, arguing that the investigation in this case was still underway. Hisar Police previously said no evidence emerged to indicate Malhotra had access to any military or defence-related information, but claimed she was in contact with some people and was aware that they were Pakistani intelligence operatives. Police sources had previously said sh
A local court on Monday extended the judicial custody of social media influencer Jyoti Malhotra and fixed her case's hearing on June 23. The 33-year-old YouTuber appeared before the court of Hisar Judicial Magistrate (First Class) Sunil Kumar through video conferencing on Monday which extended her judicial custody by two weeks. "The court has extended her judicial custody and fixed June 23 for the next hearing in this case," her lawyer Kumar Mukesh said. Hisar Police arrested Malhotra on suspicion of espionage on May 16. She was subsequently remanded to five days of police custody by the court. Following the completion of the remand, the court extended it by four more days on the police's plea for further questioning. On May 26, the court remanded her to judicial custody for 14 days. Malhotra, who hails from the city, ran a YouTube channel "Travel with JO". She was arrested at the New Aggarsain Extension and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya N
A court here on Thursday extended the police remand of content creator and social media influencer Jyoti Malhotra by four days, a police spokesperson said. The 33-year-old YouTuber -- arrested on suspicion of espionage -- was produced before the court at the end of her five-day police remand. Malhotra was among the 12 people arrested from Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh over the past two weeks on suspicion of espionage, with investigators suspecting the presence of a Pakistan-linked spy network operating in north India. The Hisar native ran a YouTube channel "Travel with JO". She was arrested at the New Aggarsain Extension last week and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita. Hisar police said on Wednesday that no evidence had emerged to indicate Malhotra had access to any military- or defence-related information. But she was definitely in contact with some people, knowing that they were Pakistani intelligence operatives, they had ...
US journalist Evan Gershkovich, who has been jailed for over a year in Russia on espionage charges, will stand trial in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg, where he was detained, authorities said on Thursday. An indictment of The Wall Street Journal reporter has been finalized and his case was filed to the Sverdlovsky Regional Court in the city about 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) east of Moscow, according to Russia's Prosecutor General's office. There was no word on when the trial would begin. Gershkovich, 32, is accused of gathering secret information on orders from the CIA about Uralvagonzavod, a facility in the Sverdlovsk region that produces and repairs military equipment, the Prosecutor General's office said in a statement, revealing for the first time the details of the accusations against him. Gershkovich was detained while on a reporting trip to Yekaterinburg in March 2023 and accused of spying for the United States. The reporter, his employer and the US government deni
Australia expelled two Indian spies in 2020 for allegedly trying to "steal secrets" about sensitive defence projects and airport security, the Australian media reported on Tuesday. While The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald said two Indian spies were booted out, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) did not mention any number. There was no immediate comment from Indian officials on the Australian media reports. "Indian spies were kicked out of Australia after being caught trying to steal secrets about sensitive defence projects and airport security, as well as classified information on Australia's trade relationships," the ABC report said. The so-called foreign "nest of spies" disrupted by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in 2020 was also accused of closely monitoring Indians living in Australia and developing close relationships with current and former politicians, it said. The reports came a day after The Washington Post named an Indian RA
A Chinese-Australian journalist who was convicted on murky espionage charges and detained in China for three years has returned to Australia, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday. Cheng Lei, 48, worked for the international department of China's state broadcaster CCTV. She has reunited with her two children in Melbourne, Albanese said. Her return comes ahead of Albanese's planned visit to Beijing this year on a date yet to be announced. Albanese's government has been lobbying for the release of Cheng and Yang Hengjun, another Chinese-Australian held in China since 2019. Bilateral relations have improved since Albanese's centre-left Labour Party was elected after nine years of conservative rule. Beijing has lifted several official and unofficial trade barriers on Australian exports. Albanese suggested that Cheng had recently been sentenced after she was convicted in a closed-court trial last year on national security charges. Her return brings an end to a very difficult
A special court here has rejected the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad's plea seeking a polygraph, voice layer and psychological analysis tests for DRDO scientist Pradeep Kurulkar, an accused in an espionage case. Special judge V R Kachre on Saturday rejected the ATS' application requesting the court to seek Kurulkar's consent for a polygraph test, voice layer and psychological analysis test. Kurulkar, the then-director of a laboratory affiliated with the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Pune, was arrested on May 3 under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking confidential information to a Pakistani intelligence operative. Defence counsel Rhishikesh Ganu said the accused cannot be forced to undergo the said tests and argued that the entire case was based on telephonic communication and electronic gadgets, which are with the ATS. The judge in his order said, "...I am of the view that the accused without his consent cannot be forced to undergo either ...