Honey-trapped jawan arrested in Madhya Pradesh spied on troop movements
BHOPAL: An army man, recently arrested from Mhow in Madhya Pradesh for passing on critical information about the country’s defence apparatus to his Pakistani handlers, was ‘honey-trapped’ by a young woman who was involved in a similar case in Jhansi a few years back.
The 28-year-old junior clerical staff posted at Mhow, who hails from the district of Vaishali in Bihar, is currently in police remand till May 26 for passing sensitive Army details on a day-to-day basis, investigators said.
Based on investigations and interrogation of the arrested man, it has come to the fore that his Pakistani handlers used a young woman, aged around 25, to honey-trap the accused. The woman, a well-trained Pakistani operative, posed as an Indian national, Prishi Agrawal, to lure him into explicit chats over social media platforms, including WhatsApp and Facebook.
She later began asking him to provide details on defence installations, locations, besides movement and exercises of the Indian Army.
The probe has revealed a strong possibility of the woman being the same person who honey-trapped another Army man posted at Jhansi’s Babina Cantonment, who was arrested back in 2014. According to sources, investigators have also zeroed in on the money which was deposited into bank accounts of the arrested army man and aides over the last two years by his Pakistani handlers through their men in other parts of India.
While details about money transfer are still being ascertained, it has come to the fore that the money was deposited into his accounts from places outside MP, including Delhi.
Three years back, MP Police’s Anti-Terror Squad had busted a Pakistani spy ring facilitated by a series of Chinese sim box exchanges in various cities of the state, including Bhopal, Jabalpur and Gwalior, that was used for phone frauds.
The money earned was parked in bank accounts in MP’s Satna and Rewa districts before being handed over to operatives based in Old Delhi.
Part of the money earned through phone frauds was also sourced to hawala operators and a few dry fruit traders in northern India, including Jammu and Kashmir. It was then routed to spies.