JAIPUR: Two Indian Army soldiers, stationed at the Rajasthan border with Pakistan, have been reported to be caught in a honeytrap by Pakistan’s ISI. Both the accused were posted at Pokhran in Jaiselmer district. On Tuesday, while going from Pokhran to their village, Indian intelligence agencies took them into custody at Jodhpur railway station. They have been taken directly to Jaipur.
These two soldiers, who are accused of sending tactical information through Pakistani women agents who were in a guise, are being questioned in Jaipur. Umesh Mishra, Additional Director General of Rajasthan Intelligence says that both the soldiers have been found to be prey to a honeytrap. Both have been detained and investigation has been initiated after strong evidence was found.
"We have detained two army jawans for their involvement in spying activities. They were deployed at an army unit in Pokhran. They were honey-trapped by Pakistani intelligence agency ISI and were sending information across the border through different social media platforms " ADF police ( intelligence ) Umesh Mishra said.
Investigation agencies are enquiring about their modus operandi, who was handling them and their links in India. Sources say, Lance Naik of 12 Guards, Ravi Varma of Madhya Pradesh and cook Vichitra Behera, Odisha resident, lived alone in Pokharan. They got introduced to a woman on Facebook. According to the information, both the soldiers were in the honeytrap for the last year and a half and were sending strategic information. Initial investigation has revealed that they had sent important information to Pakistan through Facebook and WhatsApp. The woman's name and tone of speech was Punjabi. Taking advantage of this, she trapped both the soldiers through internet calls.
The woman called the soldiers using VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) with an accent. Due to this, even while she was in Pakistan, she called the soldiers from an Indian number. After seeing the Indian number, the accused jawans got misled and shared important information with her. Some of the information was regarding army deployment, equipment and manoeuvres etc. In lieu of this, a deposit of five thousand rupees in their accounts has also been revealed.
The Army has refused to react on this " We don't have anything to say on this." said Col. Shombit Ghosh, PRO defence , South Western Command.
Verma joined the Army in 2016 while Behera had joined the army in 2017. The sources said that few more army personnel were expected to be caught in honeytrap cases soon. Sleeper cells and ISI agents are active in Delhi and border districts who give money to these honey-trapped jawans. In January this year, a jawan named Sombhir was also honey-trapped was later caught at Jaisalmer military station for passing information across the border.