Honey-trapping case: Many more names figure in friends list of FB account reportedly operated by ISI

ATS finds names of more Indian armed, paramilitary personnel in FB Friends list of unknown Facebook user whose account was reportedly operated by the ISI.
Image used for representational purpose only.
Image used for representational purpose only.

LUCKNOW: During the interrogation of BSF Constable Achyutanand Mishra, who was held on charges of spying for Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) recently, officials of the UP Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) have found names of many more armed and paramilitary force personnel in the contact list of the unknown Facebook user whose account was reportedly operated by the ISI.

The ISI honeytrapped Mishra to extract crucial and classified information about the force, logistics, locations and troops movement in UP.

Mishra, who was arrested from Noida on Wednesday has been going through gruelling grilling since then.

According to ATS IG Asim Arun, the FB profile, supposedly of a woman, who trapped Mishra by posing as a defence journalist, had over 90 people in the friends list from India, out of which many from the armed and paramilitary forces were also allegedly honey-trapped through various social media platforms.

According to ATS sources, these youths were being given some financial incentives for their services. "They were asked to give pictures of important defence installations situated in the cantonment and other vital information about the name of the unit deployed, number of personnel etc," said an ATS officer.

The IG said the ATS had shortlisted top 10 people figuring in the friends list of the unknown handler with whom they all used to interact intensively.

He said that ATS had rounded up one of the 90 people figuring on the list, though he was not from the forces. However nothing substantial came out during the interrogation.

The information ATS gathered after grilling Mishra and this other person, is being shared both with central and military intelligence agencies.

IG Asim Arun said that while armed forces would be alerted about their personnel being in touch with unknown Facebook friends, the ATS teams were trying to track all those from UP who used to chat with unknown user extensively.

The ATS officials found a clear trend while quizzing Mishra that ISI people were trapping armed force personnel and common Indians by liking and commenting on their social media posts and then extracting information from them.

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The New Indian Express
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