Indian Navy sailor arrested for leaking data to Pakistan operative

A 31-year-old Indian Navy sailor, Pradeep Mukherjee, was arrested on Saturday, 3 October 2026, at INS Agrani in Coimbatore for allegedly leaking classified maritime intelligence to a female Pakistani intelligence operative through a social media ‘honey-trap’, officials said on Sunday, 4 October. The Andhra Pradesh Police Counter Intelligence (CI) cell made the arrest after detecting suspicious digital activity linked to Mukherjee, a West Bengal native who joined the Navy in 2014 and was posted with the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam.

According to official sources cited by multiple outlets, the Pakistani operative contacted Mukherjee several months ago and gradually extracted sensitive details about strategic naval assets, fleet movements and the operational setup of the Visakhapatnam base. Mukherjee, who was attending a management development course at the Coimbatore facility for about a week, was placed under surveillance before his arrest. Investigators produced him before a local magistrate to secure a transit warrant and took him to the CI headquarters in Vijayawada for further interrogation.

A probe is underway to determine the nature and volume of the compromised data and possible financial transactions routed through hawala or digital channels, the Times of India reported.