NEW DELHI: Military intelligence officials have nabbed three Army officers, including a colonel of the prestigious Army War College, for sharing secret official information with a woman suspected to be of Indian origin, in exchange for sexually explicit conversations.
The office of the Directorate General of Military Intelligence (DGMI) had on August 11 sent an internal communication to all Army commands, including the Strategic Forces and Integrated Defence staff, disclosing the names of the three officers for their involvement in a case of breach of security. As the investigation is in a preliminary stage, it has not ruled out involvement of more military personnel in such honey trap cases.
The three officers, including the colonel of mechanised infantry currently posted in the Army War College, Mhow, a major of 2 Rajput and a lieutenant of the Army Ordnance Corps presently attached with 3 Rajput, were found prima facie involved in such an activity knowing fully well that they are violating the security protocol of the military establishment, according to a military intelligence directorate letter.
The directorate says that the three officers, besides revealing their own identity, also disclosed information about the military in exchange for sexually explicit conversations with the woman.
The military intelligence learnt about the case after screenshots of chat messages of the suspected person of Indian origin woman, who was in contact with the Army officers through Facebook and giving out details of ‘Order of Battle’ formations, were circulated on instant messaging application WhatsApp.
Order of Battle refers to an armed force participating in a military operation or campaign and shows the hierarchical composition, command structure, strength, disposition of personnel and equipment of units and formations of the armed force.
The directorate further says that indulgence of the officers is an act ‘unbecoming of their status’ and responsibilities and are not only ‘detrimental to security’ but in clear ‘violation of existing orders’ issued to all formations periodically.