As per reports, four months back, Rajasthan Police had arrested one Army jawan on charges of espionage in Jaiselmer. After interrogations, it was revealed that he was in touch with the Pakistani ISI operatives through social media.
Sepoy Somveer Singh got in touch with one ‘Anika Chopra’ over Facebook and was chatting regularly with her and exchanging details and information about the armoured unit including its movement. Now, multiple accounts of officers and jawans are under probe with whom ‘Anika Chopra’ was in touch with.
As per reports, ‘Anika Chopra’ sent Sepoy Singh a ‘friends request’ on Facebook back in 2016. He was flattered that a lady officer had approached him and he was so smitten that had even decided to divorce his wife and marry ‘Anika Chopra’. The military intelligence started monitoring his activities since last five months after he got a call from Jammu. It was revealed that ‘Anika Chopra’ was operating out of Pakistan.
‘Anika Chopra’ asked him questions like ‘where are you posted?’ and asked for pictures of the tank and other sensitive information. Soon enough, ‘Anika Chopra’ started blackmailing him and Singh reportedly started taking money in exchange of information. Sepoy Singh was not the only one honey-trapped by ‘Anika Chopra’. As many as 50 jawans are under investigation.
Pakistan intelligence is increasingly using social media for spying activities. A few months back, an Engineer at Brahmos facility in Nagpur, Nishant Agarwal, was arrested for alleged spying and passing on sensitive information to his ISI handlers. Even then Pakistani handlers had used social media accounts to honeytrap Agarwal.
Pakistan has also tried to lure the army jawans for carrying out espionage against India. In October last year, an Indian Army soldier of Meerut Cantonment was caught and several others detained by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad on the charges of espionage activities carried out on the directions of the infamous ISI. The arrested jawan was stationed in the Army’s Signal Regiment in Meerut Cantonment.
In September last year, Uttar Pradesh ATS team had arrested a BSF Jawan, Achutanand Misra, a resident of Madhya Pradesh’s Rewa district, for sharing vital information about India’s defence preparedness with ISI lackeys. He was “honey-trapped” by a woman claiming to be a journalist into sharing information about unit operational details, police academy and training centre. Prior to that, a person named Ramesh who worked as a cook in an Indian diplomat’s house was arrested by the Jammu and Kashmir military Intelligence Unit and the Uttar Pradesh police from Pithoragarh for bugging the house and passing off the information to the ISI.
Recently, a suspected Pakistani spy was arrested from Arunachal Pradesh border who had allegedly passed sensitive information about Army deployment and location, weapons information and number of Artillery installations in Kibithu to his Dubai based handler.
