New Delhi: An Indian Navy sailor has been arrested on suspicion of passing sensitive information about the Visakhapatnam naval base to a suspected Pakistani intelligence operative who allegedly cultivated a relationship with him online. The Andhra Pradesh Police’s counter-intelligence cell detained the 31-year-old, Pradeep Mukherjee, at INS Agrani in Coimbatore on Saturday, while he was attending a management development course.
Investigators suspect that the disclosures included information about naval assets, fleet movements and operational arrangements, according to officials cited in the New Indian Express. The extent of the alleged breach remains under investigation, including what material was shared and whether Mukherjee received payments.
Mukherjee, who is from West Bengal, joined the Navy in 2014 and was serving under the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam. He had reached INS Agrani, a naval leadership training establishment in Coimbatore’s Red Fields area, about a week before his arrest, according to the newspaper’s local report.
Officials quoted in the reports said a woman suspected of working for Pakistani intelligence contacted him through social media several months ago and gradually developed an online relationship with him. Investigators allege that she used that relationship to obtain information connected to his naval posting, describing the approach as a suspected honeytrap.
The inquiry began after counter-intelligence personnel detected suspicious online activity associated with Mukherjee and placed him under surveillance. According to the Times of India, investigators obtained clearance from naval authorities before a specialized police team took him into custody at INS Agrani on Saturday morning.
Local police were informed of the arrest, and Mukherjee was subsequently produced before a magistrate for the transit proceedings needed to move him to Andhra Pradesh. He was then taken to the counter-intelligence headquarters in Vijayawada for further questioning, the newspaper reported.
Investigators are examining the nature and volume of the information allegedly disclosed, alongside possible financial transfers through digital payment systems or hawala channels. The Pioneer reported that the inquiry would also seek to establish whether anyone else was involved; the reports do not establish that payments were made.
The accounts available so far rely on officials and unnamed sources, without presenting the alleged communications or identifying specific compromised documents. They also contain no response from Mukherjee or his legal representative, and the allegations have yet to be tested in court.
The arrest comes against a background of earlier investigations into Pakistani intelligence networks targeting Indian naval information. In a statement issued on October 17, 2025, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) announced that a special court had sentenced two men in a separate Visakhapatnam naval espionage case involving the financing of spying activities.
The NIA said the men had maintained contact with Pakistani agents through WhatsApp and transferred money into the accounts of accused naval personnel at their direction. The agency, which took over that investigation from Andhra Pradesh counterintelligence police in December 2019, said it had arrested 15 people, including 11 Navy personnel, during the inquiry.
No connection between that earlier network and Mukherjee’s alleged activities has been established in the reports reviewed. In the present investigation, the unresolved questions include precisely what information changed hands, the identity and affiliation of the suspected recipient, and whether the alleged disclosures compromised naval operations.