An Army officer working with the EME unit of Andhra Sub-Area was arrested on charges of passing on sensitive information to a woman suspected to be a Pakistani national, whom he befriended on Facebook, police said on Wednesday.
Naik Subedar Patan Kumar Poddar of West Bengal, sources said came in contact with the woman who identified herself as Anushka Agarwal on Facebook a year ago. He was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days after being produced before a magistrate by the Central Crime Station sleuths of Hyderabad police.
The police moved the court seeking his custody for further investigations into what appears to be a textbook case of a honey trap. Sources said the central intelligence agencies kept Poddar under surveillance after some of his actions aroused suspicions about his role in alleged spying.
On receiving specific information, CCS officials caught the Naik Subedar three days ago after registering a criminal case under Official Secrets Act. Patan Kumar was working in the railway reservation special counter for the military located at Secunderabad as one of the four clerks. He worked as marketing agent for a company called Secured Life and used to persuade his colleagues to join money circulation scheme
Using the computers there and his personal laptop, he used to chat online with others when he came in contact with Anushka Agarwal. The woman is suspected to be a resident of Pak Occupied Kashmir (PoK) area as the messages from her internet protocol address were traced to that place.
Claiming that her father was from the Army and she was running a non-governmental organisation, she befriended Patan Kumar and sought to know crucial Indian military details. “Apparently to lure him, the woman sent her nude pictures and started transferring money to his bank account as he passed on details of Indian troops’ movement and contact numbers of officials,” a police officer associated with the investigation told The Hindu.
“Through mobile phone and emails, he shared information about strategic location of army bases and deployment of defence units. Patan collected information about location of artillery regiments, commands, corps, division headquarters and brigades by speaking with army officials at different locations,” Hyderabad Police Commissioner V. Mahender Reddy said in a press release.
Mr. Reddy said Patan Kumar misused his position and shared official secrets with outsiders and foreign nationals against the interests of national security. Investigators believe he mailed to her some details of missile locations, profiles of top military officials and important phone numbers. Patan Kumar was aware of troops’ movement as he used to book train tickets whenever they moved from Secunderabad to other places in the country.
Mobile phones, pen-drives, internet data-cards, computer and a laptop used by him were seized by the police.
