Soldier Sent to 5-Day Remand for Leaking Border Info to Pak Woman

As per official, jawans were going to their village from Pokhran when intelligence officials took them into custody.

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(Photo Courtesy: Reuters)

Out of the two soldiers who were arrested on Wednesday, 6 November, army personnel Vichitra Behera, was on Thursday, sent to a five-day remand to Rajasthan Intelligence Police by a Jaipur court for allegedly sharing secret information with a suspected Pakistani ISI agent over social media, ANI reported.

According to officials, both the jawans were going to their village from Pokhran when intelligence officials took them into custody from Jodhpur railway station on Tuesday.

The officials said that the jawans were sending crucial information after falling into a honeytrap of the Pakistani woman.

The two accused were taken to Jaipur from Jodhpur, where they were interrogated.

Rajasthan Additional Director General Umesh Mishra confirmed that the preliminary investigation showed that the two soldiers were honeytrapped, IANS reported. According to official sources, the two soldiers were sending crucial information to Pakistan via WhatsApp and Facebook.

According to Army sources quoted by ANI, in the investigation it was found that the two personnel were involved with one Facebook ID with the name of ‘Seerat’ that was posing as a woman.

Further, ANI reported quoting Army sources that the force had issued an advisory in mid-October on the modus operandi of Pakistan intelligence operatives' attempts to gain intelligence through social media and other means.

While one jawan is from Madhya Pradesh, the other is from Assam. Both were honeytrapped by the premier intelligence service official from Pakistan's ISI.

The woman had a Punjabi accent and was calling using voice over internet protocol (VoIP) service from a Pakistan number which was reflected as an Indian number on the soldier's screen.

As such they took her to be an Indian and shared crucial information on army deployment in Rajasthan, army equipment and other crucial details.

The two soldiers were identified as Lance Nayak Ravi Verma and soldier Vichitra Behera, who were arrested in a joint action by CBI and IB teams while they were going to their village, said sources.

Both of them were posted in Pokhran and were brought to Jaipur on Tuesday night from Jodhpur.

(With inputs from IANS, ANI)