JUDGMENT :

K. Suresh Reddy, J.

Questioning the order, dated 06.10.2025 in Crl.M.P.No.1970 of 2025 in S.C.No.15 of 2023 on the file of the Court of III Additional District and Sessions Judge-cum-Special Judge for SPE & ACB Cases, Visakhapatnam, the appellant/Accused No.7, filed the present Criminal Appeal under Section 21(4) of the National Investigation Agency Act, 2008.

2. Case of prosecution briefly is as follows :-

On 15.11.2019, on receipt of credible information, the Counter Intelligence police registered FIR stating that during 2011-2019 some unidentified foreign nationals entered into conspiracy with some unidentified persons at Visakhapatnam, Mumbai and other places to carry out Anti-National activities. The said FIR was registered for the offences under Sections 120-B, 121-A IPC and Sections 17 and 18 of Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and Section 3 of Official Secrets Act, 1923. The said FIR was registered as Crime No.1 of 2019 on 16.11.2019. During the course of investigation, Counter Intelligence Police conducted searches at the residential premises of accused and arrested them.

3. In view of the gravity of the offence, the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India entrusted the investigation to National Investigating Agency. Accordingly, N.I.A, Hyderabad, re-registered the above said case as RC-05/2019/NIA/Hyderabad, dated 29.12.2019 for the offences under Sections 120-B, 121-A IPC and Sections 17 and 18 of U.A (P) Act, 1967 and Section 3 of Official Secrets Act, 1923.

4. During the course of investigation, the Investigating Authorities conducted searches at the residential premises of A.2 to A.5, A.15, as well as the office premises/working places of Navy personnel (A.6 to A.13 and A.16 to A.18) between 19.12.2019 and 29.12.2019 and seized electronic gadgets such as mobile phones, memory cards, SIM cards, Pen drives etc., and also bank documents, identity documents such as Aadhaar cards, Pan cards, Passports etc. and other material from the individual possession and residential/office premises of accused A.2 to A.13 and A.15 to A.18. Thereafter, the Investigating Agency arrested A.2, A.6 to A.13 and A.15 to A.18 as they were found to be involved in the commission of the present offence.

5. The allegation made against the appellant who is shown as A.7 in the Charge Sheet at paragraph No.17.27.7 is as hereunder :-

“17.27.7 Role and involvement of Ashok Kumar Deg (A-7) : He was arrested on 19.12.2019 from Naval Dockyard, Mumbai. He joined Indian Navy as sailor in February 2017 and was posted at different ships/submarines namely INS INS Aditya and INS Sindhuvijay. Investigation revealed that Ashok Kumar Deg (A-7) was using WhatsApp with mobile number 9928029612 and Facebook user ID 100003535788525 (Profile name ‘Ashok Deg’). During June 2019, he came in contact with online handler ‘Ashi Rajput @ Harish Rajput’ over WhatsApp. Ashi Rajput is using WhatsApp with mobile numbers 9898606736 & 9726177846 . True caller name of mobile number 9898606736 of Ashi Rajput found as ‘Harish Gun’ in the mobile phone data of A-7. Thereafter, accused came in contact with another handlers ‘Diya Gupta @ Deepa Prakash’ over Facebook. Diya Gupta shared her WhatsApp mobile number 9714572065 with accused. Since then accused used to make WhatsApp calls to her and they both used to exchange photographs. It is also reveled that said “Harish’ asked the accused to share the details of any ship sailing for foreign countries. On 02.08.2019, the accused informed him about ‘INS Deepak’ sailing for any foreign country. Investigation revealed that on two occasions, A-7 sought money from said ‘Harish’. Accordingly, an amount of Rs.4,501/- was deposited into SBI account no36559077663 of A 7 on 21.08.2019 from the shop of Intezar Sayyad (A-2). Thereby, accused Ashok Kumar Deg (A-7) has committed offences under Sections 120-B & 201 of The Indian Penal Code 1860, section 18 of The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 and Sections 3, 4 & 5 of Th