Indian Air Force officer passed war plans and drone unit secrets to a suspected Pakistani spy, police say

A serving Indian Air Force wing commander handed a suspected Pakistani intelligence operative pages of a secret war plan, details of a covert drone unit and information on the movements of frontline combat aircraft, according to a police chargesheet filed in a Delhi court and reported by The Indian Express on 13 November. The officer, who has not been named in the reports, was arrested earlier this year and has been charged under India's Official Secrets Act.

According to the chargesheet, the officer was in touch with the suspected operative over WhatsApp from 12 January to 1 April 2026. The contact came to light when he was stopped and checked for carrying a smartphone into his office. Police told the court that the material he disclosed may have compromised critical military assets, exposed operational weaknesses and put national security at risk.

Investigators allege that the officer described the strength and organisational structure of a secret drone unit, the results of its drone trials, the endurance of its weapon system and the way that system finds its targets. He is also accused of passing on the locations set aside for the unit to deploy to in wartime, along with the coordinates of sensitive military installations.

The chargesheet further lists information on the deployment of fighter aircraft at Leh and on a military exercise held at the Mahajan Field Firing Range in Suratgarh. Police described these disclosures as part of a wider flow of classified material that could have revealed the operational plans and deployment patterns of the Indian armed forces.

Police say the approach worked as a honey trap. According to the chargesheet, the officer uploaded a page of the secret war plan after the suspected operative sent him an explicit photograph, and then offered to supply a fresh page of the plan for every further image he received.

The alleged operation also had a cyber element. Police said the suspected operative sent the officer malware applications capable of reaching sensitive information on his devices and his communications with his chain of command. The chargesheet says he then carried out an instruction to install specified malware or spyware on the information and communication technology devices of five subordinates serving in the unit under his command.

Forensic analysis of the WhatsApp data, according to the chargesheet, found 3,008 text messages, 65 images, 65 reactions, 42 voice calls, four video calls and six web links exchanged between the officer and the suspected Pakistani operative.

The case began with a complaint from air force authorities. Delhi Police arrested the officer on 30 May and submitted the chargesheet on 30 July, according to an earlier police statement cited by Moneycontrol. At the time, the air force said the officer had been under active surveillance before he was handed over to law enforcement.

Earlier coverage of the case in August, by The Statesman, reported that the officer was posted to a classified covert unit and that the planted malware was meant to give remote backdoor access to colleagues' phones and laptops. The same report said forensic experts recovered chat history he had deleted from his handset, and that in his statement to investigators he admitted leaking documents while citing blackmail and coercion.

India's Official Secrets Act of 1923 makes espionage and the unauthorised disclosure of protected government information a crime, and spying offences that involve military or air force affairs carry prison terms of up to 14 years. The allegations in the chargesheet have not been tested at trial and remain before the court.