Daijiworld Media Network- Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Apr 29: In a significant development, the Karnataka High Court has ordered a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe into allegations of data theft and cyber-espionage raised by Newspace Research and Technologies Private Limited — a company supplying drones to India's defence forces.
The directive came from a bench headed by Justice M. Nagaprasanna while hearing a petition filed by the Bengaluru-based firm. The court, in its order, observed that the allegations are of serious concern as they pertain to national defence and sensitive military technologies.
Constituting a three-member SIT, the bench appointed senior IPS officer Pranab Mohanty — currently heading the Cyber Command Unit as well as the Cyber Crime and Narcotics Division in the CID — to lead the probe. IPS officers Bhushan Gulab Rao Borase and Nisha James will assist him in the investigation.
The SIT has been tasked with completing the probe within three months and submitting its report to the court.
Newspace Research and Technologies, which supplies Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to the Indian Army, Navy, Air Force, and premier defence institutions like DRDO, alleged that certain former employees stole crucial data, including source codes, designs, and sensitive defence technologies, and misused it to benefit a rival firm.
The petitioner firm pointed out that despite filing a police complaint and securing judicial intervention, the investigation had barely made any headway.
Expressing serious concerns over the matter, the bench highlighted the alarming rise in cybercrimes and noted the lack of expertise among law enforcement agencies to handle complex technological cases.
The court observed that the low chargesheet filing rate in cybercrime cases — a mere 8 percent — is not necessarily due to lack of evidence or innocence of accused persons, but primarily due to investigating officers' insufficient technical skills.
"The accused are not exonerated because they are not guilty, but because the officers are ill-equipped to bring them to justice," the bench stated, underlining the urgent need for specialised training in handling new-age crimes.