Indian rocket scientist Praveen Maurya has alleged that spies have been pressuring and threatening him to leak confidential information about the country's space program.
Maurya told Sputnik that it all began at the end of 2021, when he started receiving calls from a person named Ajikumar Surendren, who allegedly offered him hefty money to get classified information from the ISRO for his team in Dubai.
When Maurya turned down the demand and warned not approach him again, Surendren filed a fake case against him and got him arrested.
“Surendren told me that we would have to work for some people in Dubai who would want some classified information from the ISRO. When I repeatedly said 'no' to him, he filed a fake case on me over selling drugs to his minor daughter and harassing her,” Maurya stated.
Screenshot of LinkedIn post of Indian rocket scientist Praveen Maurya
© Photo
Maurya also accused the Kerala police of involvement in the conspiracy along with Surendren in the case.
At midnight on February 5, 2022, Maurya said the Kerala police barged into his flat and arrested him.
“I was illegally arrested that night, as the first information report (FIR) was filed the next day on February 6. The Kerala police harassed me and beat me up. One of the sub-inspectors who was involved in the case said that he would withdraw the case and all the criminal charges put on me only if I agree to work for Surendren. They also threatened me to not open up my mouth in front of the court,” Maurya shared.
His parents came to his rescue and bailed him out on February 8.
He also suspects senior ISRO officers were involved in the case, as he figured out that somebody was passing internal information to the sub-inspector, who was in turn passing it on to Surendren.
“When I got out on bail, I was already suspended from my office. But after three months, a committee was formed to review and revoke my suspension. [However,] two weeks before, the sub-inspector called me and broke this news to me. How did a sub-inspector in Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala) get to know about what was going to happen in the ISRO, which is in Bengaluru?” Maurya asked.
Meanwhile, Maurya collected proof by recording the conversations and messages sent by the sub-inspector and Surendren.
Maurya alleged that after he moved to Uttar Pradesh state, the blackmailers resorted to other ways, like honey-traps, to dupe him, while the police continued to threaten him and his family members.
“I started getting calls and messages from unknown girls, who would lure me and try to become friends. But I blocked them all,” Maurya said.
In April 2022, Maurya filed a written complaint to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, ISRO Chairman S. Somanath, and several members of parliament.
“I got to know that all the letters to PM Modi, the chief justice of India, and others were forwarded to the Department of Space, where it all got dismissed by being declared ‘staff grievances’. The ISRO office threatened me with being sacked and disposed of so that nobody would ever get to know anything about the incident," he claimed.
When no action was taken, Maurya decided to make the incident public and also wrote his last letter to the ISRO chief on November 5.
Hence, on November 9, Maurya posted a long note on his LinkedIn profile, sharing pictures of his letter to PM Modi and the ISRO chairman as he narrated his ordeal in public.
Twitter screenshot of letters filed by ISRO scientist Praveen Maurya to Prime Minister Narendra Modi
© Photo : Twitter/@kukuNewz
Maurya said that the problem was that nobody was saying or doing anything about his case. "Hence, I decided to go public with my demand for an independent, logical enquiry by a central investigative agency.”
The post has gone viral, drawing a lot of reactions from netizens.
“I was doomed, in extreme depression and traumatized by the whole incident. But now when I see hundreds of thousands of people coming forward in my support, I am getting hope for justice,” Maurya said.
Sputnik has reached an ISRO spokesperson for comment, but no response has been received so far.