November 25:- The NIA Special Court in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday sentenced two more accused in a Pakistan-linked espionage case to over five years of simple imprisonment, raising the total number of convictions to eight.
Ashok Kumar from Jhunjhunu and Vikas Kumar from Alwar (Rajasthan) were handed 5 years and 11 months of simple imprisonment each under Section 18 of the UA(P) Act and Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act. The court also imposed a fine of ₹5,000, with an additional one-year sentence in case of default.
The case involves surveillance of Indian Navy installations by operatives working for foreign handlers. Of the 15 people arrested, eight have now been convicted, while the trial of the remaining accused in case RC 05/2019/NIA/HYD continues.
NIA took over the investigation from the Andhra Pradesh Counter-Intelligence Police in December 2019. Ashok and Vikas were arrested the same month from Mumbai and Karwar, respectively. The agency filed its first chargesheet against 14 accused in June 2020, followed by a supplementary chargesheet in March 2021.
