Bhubaneswar, Sep 15 (IANS): The Crime Branch of the Odisha police will investigate the sensitive DRDO espionage case, officials said on Wednesday.

The Odisha police had on Tuesday arrested four contractual employees of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at Chandipur in Balasore district on charges of leaking classified defence information to foreign agents.

A four-member team of the Crime Branch headed by Additional SP Prasant Kumar Bisoyi will investigate the case.

"As per the order of @DGPOdisha, the Crime Branch will take over the investigation of Chandipur PS Case No. 76/2021. A four-member probe team headed by Addl SP Prasant Kumar Bisoyi is heading to @SPBalasore to take charge of the investigation," the Crime Branch informed via a tweet on Wednesday.

The arrested persons were produced before the local court of the sub-divisional judicial magistrate (SDJM) in Balasore on Wednesday.

For the second time, such a case of espionage has surfaced at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in Chandipur. In January 2015, former DRDO employee Iswar Chandra Behera was arrested on charges of spying for Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. Behera was sentenced to life imprisonment in February this year.