PUNE: A special court in Pune on Thursday framed charges for offences under the Official Secrets (OS) Act against a senior DRDO scientist, almost three years after the anti-terrorism squad (ATS) filed a chargesheet on June 30, 2023, against him in an alleged honey trap and spying case.The development paves the way for commencement of trial in the high-profile case wherein the accused is facing charges of misusing his official position to leak out classified information pertaining to national security to a Pakistani intelligence operative. On May 3, 2023, the ATS arrested the scientist, who then held a high-ranking position in one of the DRDO labs in Pune city.Special ATS Judge PY Ladekar posted the matter for next hearing on June 20 for a procedure under Section 294 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) that enables courts to allow documents that can be admitted into evidence without formal proof, provided their genuineness is not disputed by the opposing party.“The trial will commence once this procedure is over,” special public prosecutor Ujjwala Pawar to TOI. “The crux of the charges framed relates to willful, wrongful and unauthorized communication of classified and incriminating information to suspected foreign entities, namely Pakistani intelligence operative, which is prejudicial to the safety of a state and is likely to affect the sovereignty and integrity of India,” the prosecutor said.Defence lawyer Rushikesh Ganu confirmed to TOI, “The court has framed the charges, and we shall wait for the prosecution to take further steps for the hearing of the case.”The delay in framing charges was primarily due to the pendency of the scientist’s plea seeking discharge from the case on grounds of legal technicalities and his attempts, in between, to secure bail from the Pune special court (rejected on Dec 7, 2023) and the Bombay high court (rejected on April 15, 2026).“The special court rejected our client’s discharge plea today before proceeding with the framing of charges,” Ganu said. The ATS had filed the chargesheet for offences under sections 3 (penalties for spying), 5 (1) (6) (a) (d) [wrongful communications of information) and 4 (communication with foreign agents to be evidence of commission of certain offences) of the Official Secrets Act.
