Smith will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, the police added…reports Asian Lite News
A security guard for the British embassy in Berlin suspected of working for the Russian intelligence services has been charged with nine offences under the UK Official Secrets Act.
The Metropolitan Police said on Wednesday said 57-year-old David Smith was extradited from Germany to the United Kingdom.
“David Ballantyne Smith, 57 (24.07.64), a British national who was living in Potsdam, Germany, is charged with nine offences under the Official Secrets Act 1911,” the police said in a statement.
The alleged offences are related to the collection and transfer of information useful to the Russian state. The offences were presumably committed between October 2020 and August 2021.
Smith will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, the police added.
British Embassy Guard Charged with being a Spy for Russia
After being charged with nine offenses under the Offical secrets Act, David Ballantyne Smith, 57 will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/BI1OlXyQET
Last August, the German police arrested Smith working as a security guard at the British embassy in Berlin on suspicion of spying. Smith reportedly cooperated with the Russian intelligence service since November 2020.
He mainly worked with British documents, Sputnik reported citing German media.
German law enforcement believes that the suspect received a monetary reward for his services, presumably in cash.
With two retirements, he was eligible for two pensions. He had linked his permanent account number (PAN) and Aadhaar with his bank account while in the DSC service…reports Asian Lite News.
The regional bench of the Armed Forces Tribunal (AFT) has directed the Uttarakhand Police to lodge an FIR against a man who served the Indian Army for 34 years, impersonating his brother.
The imposter was exposed when he applied for getting his PAN linked with pension and so did his brother who had also retired from the Army.
The case relates to one Narain Singh who got himself enrolled in the Army as Shyam Singh on November 30, 1982.
He joined the 13 Guards Battalion as a soldier. Singh retired on June 30, 2001 as Naik.
He later re-enrolled in the defence security corps (DSC) on March 3, 2002 and was discharged on July 1, 2018 after rendering more than 16-years of service.
With two retirements, he was eligible for two pensions. He had linked his permanent account number (PAN) and Aadhaar with his bank account while in the DSC service.
However, in May 2017, his army pension was stopped after the bank found two permanent account number (PAN) cards with the same name (Shyam Singh), same father’s name (Madan Singh) and same date of birth (July 11, 1963) but with two different individual pictures.
Later his DSC pension too was stopped.
During investigations, it came to light that Shyam Singh is the name of the accused’s younger brother, who too served the Army with 6 Mechanized infantry.
He joined on March 15, 1982 and served for 20-years before retiring on January 31, 2002 as Havaldar.
In April 2017, the SBI’s Kashipur branch (Udham Singh Nagar district) asked real Shyam Singh to link his PAN with bank following which it was found that imposter Shyam Singh had already linked PAN with SBI’s Rampur branch of Almora district.
Thereafter bank officials stopped the pension of the two siblings.
After a four-year-long trial, the AFT Lucknow bench ordered Uttarakhand Police to lodge an FIR against accused Narain Singh.
The court observed that accused Narain Singh had used his younger brother’s fifth grade marksheet to enrol in the Indian Army.
However, agricultural land records and ration card entries had his name as Narain Singh. He used his brother’s PAN card details to link with pension payment order (PPO) for disbursement of pension.
Lt. Col. (retired) Seemit Kumar, the joint registrar of AFT Lucknow said, “The case of impersonator never would have come into light, had the PAN card was not linked to bank and PPO.”
The judgement in the case came on Wednesday and a copy of the order was released on Thursday.
