2 More Accused Sentenced to Imprisonment by NIA Court in Visakhapatnam Spying Case

Hyderabad: Two more accused were on Monday sentenced to imprisonment by a National Investigation Agency (NIA) special court in the Pakistan-linked Visakhapatnam Navy spying case.

This takes the total number of convictions in the case so far to 10. Trial is continuing against the remaining five accused arrested by NIA in the case RC-05/2019/NIA/HYD.

The two accused convicted today are Somnath Sanjay Ikade of Ahmednagar district in Maharashtra, and Sonu Kumar of Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh. They were arrested in December 2019 from Karwar (Karnataka) and Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) respectively. 

Each of them has been sentenced to Simple Imprisonment (SI) of five years, 11 months and 15 days under each of section 18 of UA(P) Act and Section 3 of Official Secrets Act.

The Special Court at Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) has also imposed a fine of Rs. 5,000 each on the duo, who will have to undergo one year additional SI in case of default in payment of the fine. 

The case, which NIA took over from the Counter Intelligence Police Station, Intelligence Department, Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh Police) in December 2019, relates to spying at vital installations and Indian Navy establishments by foreign spies/agents.

In June 2020, NIA had chargesheeted 14 accused persons, followed by a supplementary chargesheet against one more accused person in March 2021. 

Investigations are continuing as part of NIA’s efforts to expose the full conspiracy behind the espionage, that was intended to disrupt India’s unity, integrity, security and sovereignty.