Blue Diary, SIM Cards and Fear: New Twists Emerge in Ravi Verma Espionage Case

The Thane Sessions Court has extended the police custody of Ravi Verma, accused of leaking confidential Indian information to a Pakistan Intelligence Operative (PIO). The court has remanded Verma to police custody till June 5. He was produced before the court today by the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), as his earlier remand ended today.

During the court proceedings, Ravi Verma told the judge that he had no complaints against the police but admitted he was feeling a bit scared.

Presenting arguments in court, the government prosecutor informed that multiple mobile SIM cards were recovered from Verma. However, he added that the voice messages related to the case are yet to be examined. The name of a person identified only as "Sir", with whom Verma was allegedly in contact, has also surfaced during the investigation. The prosecution maintained that the case is serious and further investigation is crucial, as Verma was allegedly gathering sensitive information.

Defending the accused, advocate Rupali Shinde argued that a blue diary recovered from Verma only contained notes related to his next day's tasks and did not mention any anti-national activity. She also denied that any SIM cards were found in Verma’s possession, stating, “I don’t know if something was recovered from someone else, but my client did not have any.” She reiterated that Verma is scared but has not committed any act against the nation.

Shinde further stated that they have no information about the individual referred to as “Sir”. She alleged that Ravi Verma may have been trapped in a honeytrap. According to her, a woman named Preeti had contacted him under the pretext of a college project and had asked for some information. However, the data shared was publicly available and mostly related to warships, already accessible on the internet.