Chennai: In a major breakthrough, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has arrested a Sri Lankan national on charges of spying and passing on the vlauable information to his handlers in the Pakistani High Commission in Colombo.
Arun Selvarajan, the arrested Sri Lankan national of Tamil origin, is accused of taking photos and videos of vital security installations in Chennai and passing them on to his Pakistan-based handlers.
Selvarajan is believed to have gained access to sensitive areas such as the National Security Guard hub, Army officer training academy and Coast Guard facilities through an event management company that he opened in Chennai.
“It is a revisit of David Coleman Headley who opened an immigration firm and visited India several times and shot videos of places that were targeted by Lashkar-e-Taiba on November 26, 2008. In this case, Arun Selvarajan, the arrested Sri Lankan national of Tamil origin, managed to get an Indian passport based on forged documents and started an event management company in Chennai. In the guise of managing events, he videotaped the sensitive facilities and several crowded places in Chennai,” a counter terror official was quoted as saying on the condition of anonymity.
Selvarajan also went to Visakhapatnam where he photographed and took videos of naval facilities. He used to save these videos and photos as drafts attachments in his email account that was accessed by his Pakistani handler in Colombo.
He will be produced in court today.
