Balasore, Jan. 23: Police today arrested a contractual employee of the Interim Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur, a major missile-launching facility, on the charges of spying for Pakistan.

Iswar Behera alias Papu, 35, a photographer on contract with the ITR, was passing vital information to the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan. A native of Kantipur, a non-descript village under Betnoti block of the neighbouring Mayurbhanj district, he has been working for the ITR for about seven years taking still pictures and also making videos.

The arrest assumes significance as the state is on a high alert following intelligence inputs about a possible strike by Pakistan-based terrorist groups such as Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD),Jaish-e-Mohammad(JeM) andHizbul Mujahideen (HM), who are reported to have dispatched four teams to India with a plan to strike in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Odisha before January 28.

The ITR has been the launching pad for test firing some of the most important missiles produced by the country. A number of test vehicles of different class, including multi-role missile Trishul, multi-target capability missile Akash, the anti-tank Nag missile, the very precise surface-to-surface missile Prithvi and the large-scale technology demonstrator Agni have been test fired from this range. With its versatile technical and scientific capability, the ITR has also supported a number of other missions such as multi-barrel rocket launcher, Pinaka, and the pilotless target aircraft.

The range is spread over a length of 17km along the sea coast where a number of tracking instruments have been deployed to cover the total flight path of the test vehicles.

Wheeler Island, the other missile launching facility in the state, is not very far from here.

Deputy inspector general (eastern range) Asit Panigrahi said: 'The activities of the accused had been under constant surveillance for the past few months following an alert from the state intelligence. We pinned him down with the help of the district police. We have the information that Behera had shared information pertainingtomissiles and the test range with the ISI for money.'

The police also seized two hard discs, two mobile phones, a passbook and other incriminating documents from him. Panigrahi said Behera had received money from the ISI and it had been deposited in his account.So far, the police have seized Rs 50,000 from one of his accounts. Investigation is on to ascertain whether he had more bank accounts.

The police suspect that the money was also transferred to the bank accounts of his relatives. 'The money was transferred to his bank account from places such as Mumbai, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Abu Dhabi,' said Panigrahi.

The police claimed that money had also been sent to him by money order from Meerut. The deputy inspector general said: 'We will take him on 14-day remand and put him under interrogation to know more about his activities.'

Sources said Behera, whose father retired as a school peon, visited Calcutta frequently to repair his camera and met the ISI agents there.

'We will be alerting the Intelligence Bureau aboutBehera's activities as the money was coming from a foreign country,' an official said.

Sources from his village said Behera worked not only for the ITRbut also for the Dhamra port and shot photographs and videos at marriage functions. He has a double-storey house at his village.