DRDO guesthouse manager in Jaisalmer was spying on top scientists for Pakistan, arrested: Report

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A 32-year-old man, Mahendra Prasad, who was working as a manager at a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) guest house in Jaisalmer, was allegedly spying on top scientists for Pakistan, NDTV has reported. He was arrested on Wednesday, the report said.

Prasad was working at the guesthouse in the Chandan Field range in Jaisalmer as a contractual employee since the last five years and apparently had access to emails and telephone numbers of top scientists, which he allegedly shared with Pakistan.

He was arrested by the Rajasthan Police after a week of intense interrogation and has been taken into police custody for two days.

The top secret guesthouse serves as a stay for top scientists when they visit Pokhran and Chandan for testing of Indian defence systems and no civilian is allowed inside the premises of this place. The exact location of the guesthouse remains unknown.

The officials with the Intelligence Bureau have expressed surprise as to how an outsider was handed over the responsibility of managing a high-security guest house, NDTV said.

"It's a serious security breach that as Manager of the guest house Mahendra Prasad was privy to information via letters and emails informing him about the guests who would be visiting Chandan with their names, ranks and in some cases personal details like mobile numbers," a top source told NDTV, as per the report.

Prasad reportedly had all the information about everyone who stayed at the guesthouse and passed it on to the neighbouring country. This sometimes included entire emails and was sent through WhatsApp and other social media handles.

NDTV further reported that Prasad's handler in Pakistan was a "colonel" and he communicated with the said person through WhatsApp. Prasad also had information on whether a group of scientists were visiting who would be the leader and who would be the subordinates in the team. Sources told NDTV that such information could compromise national security.

Sources also added that Prasad may have given the enemy country a fair idea of the trials for defence systems going on in Chandan and Pokhran. Two phones have been recovered from him and a forensic analysis of his phone has revealed that he was in touch with operatives in Pakistan. How he got paid was not revealed but probe officials have suspected that Prasad may have been paid in cash for all the information that he passed.