Aerospace engineer alleged of stealing sensitive data from DRDO lab gets bail in K'taka

A local court in Karnataka has granted bail to an aerospace engineer who is alleged of sensitive data theft from Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), a lab which comes under Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO).

Sivaramakrishna Chennuboina a.k.a Chennuboina (27), the accused was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Cybercrime police on March 19. The accused engineer is charged with stealing data from July 2020 and February 2021 which he allegedly attempted to sell to websites.

A complaint regarding this was registered by Sasi Narkis Babu.V, a security officer at ADA. Initially, it was lodged against unknown persons. The accused was arrested during the course of investigation.

The 51st City Civil and Sessions Court observed that the offences are bailable and custody of the accused was not required for further investigation. The accused had been asked not to tamper with the evidence, witnesses and is directed to mark his attendance before CID cybercrime police station once in 15 days.

The prosecution argued that the accused had acted against the interest, security and integrity of the nation. However, the counsel for the accused denied all allegations against him. The allegations are made to prevent the accused from attending an interview for a senior post, they argued.

Chennuboina had completed B.Tech in Karnataka and hailed from Guntur in Andhra Pradesh. He resided in Judicial Layout of Yelahanka in Bengaluru. The order was given on April 8 and police are conducting further investigation.