Assam: Ex- IAF officer arrested for passing information to Pak-based agencies
Officials said further details regarding the duration of the accused’s alleged Pakistani contacts and the nature of the information he shared with them would emerge as the probe progresses
Silchar: A 64-year-old retired Indian Air Force (IAF) officer has been arrested in Assam’s Tezpur on charges of sedition and conspiracy for allegedly passing sensitive information to Pakistan-based anti-India agencies, police said on Saturday.
The accused, identified as Kulendra Sharma, a former Junior Warrant Officer, was formally arrested late Friday night after being under surveillance for several months.
Sharma has been booked under multiple sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), including sections 152 (sedition), 147 and 148 (rioting and conspiracy against India), 238 (causing disappearance of evidence of an offence) and 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), confirmed Sonitpur senior superintendent of police (SP) Barun Purkayastha.
According to police, the investigation was initiated based on specific intelligence inputs. “He was under our scanner for quite some time. Initially, he was picked up for questioning and, following preliminary findings, he was formally arrested on Friday night,” the SSP said.
Police officers said Sharma served as a Junior Warrant Officer at the Tezpur Air Force Station before retiring in 2002. After his retirement from the Air Force, he worked with the Electronics Department of Tezpur University, from where he later retired.
Investigators revealed that during this period he secretly maintained contact with individuals linked to a Pakistani espionage network and may have shared sensitive information.
During searches conducted as part of the probe, police seized a laptop and a mobile phone belonging to Sharma.
The deputy superintendent of police, Sonitpur, Haricharan Bhumij said digital analysis of the devices revealed materials that raised serious suspicion.
“We recovered certain information related to India that appears to have been shared with suspected Pakistani intelligence-linked contacts. While we are still verifying the extent of the linkage, the evidence recovered so far points to a strong possibility of such connections,” Bhumij said.
He added that the investigation is ongoing and that Sharma would be produced before a local court. Officials said further details regarding the duration of the alleged contacts and the nature of the information shared would emerge as the probe progresses.
The arrest comes amid heightened vigilance by Assam Police against suspected espionage and foreign-linked networks, particularly in sensitive zones of the state.
In a separate but related security and financial crime investigation, the Assam Police arrested a woman from Sonitpur district over alleged links to Pakistani operatives, suspicious foreign transactions and an undisclosed marriage to a Pakistani national in Dubai.
The woman, identified as Jyotika Kalita, was arrested on December 5 after investigators detected what they described as unexplained foreign-linked financial inflows across multiple bank accounts associated with her. Police said four others, including her brother Jitu Kalita, have also been arrested in connection with the case.
According to police, Jyotika frequently travelled to Dubai for business and allegedly married a Pakistani national, Ramzan Muhammad, while working there, an allegation her family has acknowledged. Investigators described the man as a resident of a hostile nation.
The Sonitpur SSP told HT that Jyotika is suspected to be part of a network involved in illegal financial transactions and online fraud operating across several countries.
“She transferred large sums of money illicitly using mule accounts. Our investigation suggests links to online fraud operations in countries such as Mauritius, Nepal and Bangladesh,” the SSP said.
Mobile phone analysis, police said, revealed alleged contacts with Pakistani operatives based in the UK and the Middle East, who were using mule-account networks to route funds. Jyotika had been under surveillance for several months after police flagged what they termed “unnatural” financial activity.
“She was abroad when we began preparing for the arrest. Once she returned to India, we moved swiftly,” the SSP said, adding that further legal proceedings are underway.
Police officers said both cases are being investigated independently, but reflect a broader crackdown on suspected espionage links and foreign-funded criminal networks operating in the state.
