Ex-Army man, woman held for sharing sensitive information with Pakistani spies

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat Anti Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested a retired Army man and a woman for allegedly sharing sensitive information about military establishments and personnel with Pakistani agents, officials said on Thursday.

While accused Ajaykumar Singh was lured by a Pakistani intelligence officer to provide information about movements of the Indian Army’s regiments and transfers of key military officers, the other accused, Rashmani Pal, was told to honeytrap certain individuals, they said.

Singh (47), a native of Bihar, was arrested in Goa, where he was working at a distillery after retirement in 2022. Pal (35), originally from Uttar Pradesh, was picked up from the Union Territory of Daman, where she used to take private tuitions, the ATS said.

The agency said that a Pakistani intelligence officer, who identified herself as ‘Ankita Sharma’, was in touch with Singh.

Pal, who operated under the fake identity of ‘Priya Thakur’, allegedly acted at the behest of her Pakistani handlers to extract information from military personnel by befriending them, said ATS Superintendent of Police Siddharth Korukonda.

Singh was contacted by ‘Ankita Sharma’ when he was still a Subedar in the Indian Army in the Nagaland city of Dimapur in 2022, said the official in a press conference here.

“Singh then took up the job of a security guard in Goa after his retirement. After befriending him and winning his trust, the Pakistani agent requested sensitive information, such as movements of regiments and transfers of key Army officers,” he said.

As requested by the Pakistani spy, Singh had allegedly shared the information in the form of text, photos and videos, the official said.

The spy from the neighbouring country also sent a Trojan malware file to Singh’s mobile phone, instructing him to save and install it so that sensitive information would not need to be shared via WhatsApp. The malware allowed the agent to access Singh’s device remotely, he said.

Citing Pal’s questioning, the official said that she had agreed to work as a key facilitator for Pakistani handlers -- “Abdul Sattar” and “Khalid” -- for money, said the official.

“As directed by Abdul Sattar and Khalid, she created her fake identity under the name Priya Thakur and started cultivating friendships with Indian Army personnel, whose details were shared by Sattar and Khalid, to extract confidential military information,” he said.

Pal, a homemaker, was periodically provided with lists of mobile numbers by the Pakistan-based handlers, and she was in the process of trapping certain individuals to obtain sensitive Army-related information, said the official.

“The handlers instructed Pal to specifically collect information regarding certain Army units, their war exercises, and movements. Pal was in direct contact with Abdul Sattar on his Pakistani number. To receive and transfer money, she had opened a new account with a payments bank,” he said.

The evidence linked to this espionage network, including WhatsApp calls from international numbers, documents, and financial transactions, was recovered from the mobile phones of the accused persons, the official said.

The ATS said ‘Ankita Sharma’ was operating from Multan and Sargodha, Pakistan, while “Abdul Sattar” communicated with Pal from Lahore. ‘Khalid’ operated from Pakistan using a VPN (virtual private network) and virtual Malaysian phone numbers, he added.