Cuttack, Sep 18: The Balasore SDJM court on Saturday granted Odisha Crime Branch to take the five accused arrested on espionage case on 7-day remand.

The Crime Branch had appealed to the court to take them on remand.

Five accused had been arrested in connection with the espionage case at Integrated Test Range (ITR), Chandipur. They were arrested for allegedly passing defence secrets to suspected “Pakistani” agents.

Crime Branch ADG, Sanjeev Panda said all the accused will be interrogated, for which they will be taken on a seven-day remand.

Worth mentioning, the Crime Branch (CB) had launched a probe into the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) espionage case.

According to sources, one of the accused had a link with a Pakistani woman. The woman reportedly lured the accused to leak secret information of DRDO to Pakistani agents.

Before it, Ishwar Chandra Behera, a cameraman at Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur was arrested in February 2015 on the charges of espionage.

On February 11, 2021, Behera was sentenced to life imprisonment for spying for Pakistani intelligence agency ISI.