Kulendra Sharma at police station on Saturday
GUWAHATI: A retired junior warrant officer of the IAF has been arrested in Assam’s Tezpur on charges of spying for Pakistan, police said on Saturday. Kulendra Sharma has been booked under BNS for waging war against India, criminal conspiracy, endangering the country’s sovereignty, unity and integrity, and destroying evidence.Sonitpur district DSP (border) Haricharan Bhumij said Sharma’s phones and laptops were seized. “From our sources and the gadgets, we discovered he shared sensitive defence-related documents and information with the Pakistani intelligence agency. Identity of those with whom he shared information is being verified,” he said.Four persons were also arrested in Arunachal Pradesh on espionage charges in the state over the last few weeks. Three of them are from Kupwara district in Kashmir, while the identity of the fourth has not yet been disclosed by police.DSP Bhumij said Sharma’s electronic devices revealed that he shared crucial information related to national security “and received instructions from the other side on WhatsApp”. The seized mobiles and laptops will be sent to the forensic lab for further analysis. Police, after receiving confidential information about Sharma’s Pakistani connections, picked him up from his house in Patiachuburi locality of Tezpur. Sharma retired from IAF in 2002, and worked as a technical assistant in the department of electronics and communication engineering at Tezpur University before leaving his job three years ago.Tezpur is the headquarters of the Army’s IV Corps and has vast parts of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, including the Tawang frontier, under its operational jurisdiction. At Salonibari, just on the outskirts of Tezpur, IAF’s Sukhoi base is located.In Arunachal, Hilal Ahm-ed (26), a J&K resident, was apprehended from Aalo in West Siang district, while an unidentified individual was arrested at Miao in Changlang. Hilal, who arrived in Aalo from Papum Pare district on Nov 25 to sell clothes at a trade fair, was sending sensitive information to his handlers, police said. On Nov 22, Itanagar police arrested Nazir Ahmad Malik and Sabir Ahmed Mir, also from J&K and in touch with Pakistani handlers.
