Gujarat HC denies bail to Isro officer charged with cyberterrorism

AHMEDABAD: An employee of Isro’s Space Applications Centre (SAC), who is facing trial for alleged cyberterrorism, was once again denied bail by the high court, which observed that he had taken photographs without permission from his organisation and sent them to a woman in Pakistan.
Kalpesh Turi, a technical officer at Isro-SAC, was charged with cyberterrorism under Section 66F(1)(B) of the Information Technology Act after the Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) lodged an FIR against him in Jan 2023.Turi was allegedly in touch with a woman who had identified herself as Shreya Agarwal and was ultimately traced to Pakistan.
After the trial against him commenced, Turi filed another bail plea in the HC, where his counsel submitted that he has a blotless career of 17 years at SAC in Ahmedabad. He was not aware that the woman with whom he was communicating was not stationed in India. The applicant had merely forwarded the photographs, which were selfies taken by him at his workplace. Except this, no other information whatsoever had been forwarded by the applicant to that woman, the lawyer submitted.
The state govt opposed bail saying the accused had taken photographs of the Isro premises and sent them to a woman in Pakistan. The information forwarded was sensitive. After hearing the bail plea, Justice M R Mengdey concluded that the case papers reveal that the files and images forwarded to the woman in Pakistan were related to Isro-SAC. The images were taken without any authorization from the SAC authorities. The court also said that several witnesses have already been examined and therefore, there was no change in circumstances after his earlier bail plea was rejected.