'Leaked vital information to Pakistan; NIA nabs two Malayali employees of Cochin shipyard

KOCHI: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has nabbed two Malayalees, working as contract employees in of Cochin Shipyard, for leaking vital information about Visakhapatnam Shipyard to Pakistani spies.

Abhishek, a welder-cum-fitter from Kilimanoor, Thiruvananthapuram, and another trainee from Kadamakkudy, Ernakulam, are being interrogated. The NIA Hyderabad unit took custody of the native of Kadamakkudy from his home and Abhishek from the staff quarters. It is suspected that both have links with the Assam native arrested in the Visakhapatnam case. In December 2023, the police arrested Sreenish Pookode, an electronic mechanic at the Cochin shipyard, in the same case.

It has been found that two Malayalees forwarded pictures of strategic parts of ships under construction, arrival of defence ships, maintenance, and visits of VVIPs to Pakistani spies through Sreejith.

NIA inspected Kochi Shipyard and staff quarters from Wednesday morning to afternoon. In 2021, the NIA Hyderabad unit took over the case registered by Andhra's counter-intelligence in the Visakhapatnam incident. Four people were arrested.

It is reported that the crucial information was handed over to a spy woman met through social media. The NIA has found that between March 1 and December 10, 2023, crucial information was passed on to Angel Payal's Facebook page. The Kochi City Police had written to Facebook to recover the chats on the account.