An Army jawan posted in a tank regiment in Rajasthan’s Jaisalmer was arrested on the night of Friday, 11 January after being accused of leaking confidential information to a Pakistani woman related to ISI, ANI reported. The jawan, identified as Sombir hails from Haryana and was reportedly honey-trapped by the woman on social media.
According to ANI, the jawan was in touch with the suspected ISI spy who was using an alias ‘Anika Chopra’ on Facebook.
“Army is providing all assistance to the civilian authorities in the investigation related to the Army jawan who was arrested by Rajasthan Police,” Defence PRO Col Sambit Ghosh told ANI.
Sombir was presented before the metropolitan magistrate court, which sent him to police remand till 18 January, The Times of India reported.
'Anika Chopra’ aka ISI Spy
Several sources have claimed that the spy, who introduced herself as Anika Chopra, had approached Sombir several months ago on social media. She reportedly claimed to be an officer with the Army Medical Corps in Jammu and later even sent him “intimate messages” in attempts to lure him into providing confidential information regarding the Army, TOI reported.
According to police, the social media account by the name of Anika Chopra originated in Karachi.
“Sombir was sending very intimate messages to Anika,” a police officer confirmed to TOI.
Police further claimed that this same ISI spy had attempted to befriend new army recruits in the past as well. In one such instance, she had reached out to the 19-year-old son of an Ajmer cop, who had posted pictures of himself in the Army uniform online. At this time, she had called herself Neetu Ahirwal, and claimed to be a resident of Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, the report added.
Disguised as Neetu, she had tried to find out details regarding the army’s Nasirabad cantonment. However, since the boy didn’t actually know anything, she stopped contact with him. She tried to befriend several other army men on social media, but police told the newspaper that Sombir was the only one who shared the information.
Paid For Sharing Strategic Information
According to the initial stages of the investigation, Sombir was also paid by Pakistan-based agencies for sharing the information.
“We have clues that a few months ago, Sombir was paid Rs 5,000 for spying. That money was transferred into his brother’s account in order to evade suspicion. Subsequently, Sombir transferred money into his e-wallet,” a police officer told TOI.
The case reportedly came to light last week, following which, a joint interrogation team of state and military intelligence reached Jodhpur to interrogate the accused.
From Jodhpur, the jawan was brought to the special police station of Joint Intelligence Committee in Jaipur where state and central agencies interrogated him.
Sombir was arrested under relevant sections of Officials Secret Act, 1923. Police also claimed that till 2017, the ISI would target locals to spy on the Army, but since that network was decimated in 2018, they began to reach out to new army recruits, TOI reported.
(With inputs from ANI and The Times of India)
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