Picture for representational purpose only.

BHOPAL: The honey-trapped Army jawan, who was arrested from Mhow in a joint operation by Madhya Pradesh ATS and a central intelligence agency , had reportedly shared ‘significant’ information with his Pakistani handler through WhatsApp. Military Intelligence had been working on him since December 2018, say sources.

The suspect was produced before a special court in Bhopal, which remanded him in police custody for 10 days. The Army is trying to get his custody to unearth details of his association with Pakistani agencies, how much information he passed, the favours he received and if anyone else is involved.

He was on the radar of Military Intelligence’s (MI) Lucknow unit, which is responsible for counter-intelligence in the Central Command Theatre, for around six months. Just days before this arrest, MI had carried out physical, electronic and financial surveillance with the assistance of Bihar Police and gathered enough evidence against him.

The matter was reported to MI’s command headquarters, say sources. Based on information provided by central intelligence agencies and MI, a team of MPATS arrested him from Mhow on Thursday on suspicion of espionage. The operation was so hush-hush that an officer of the infantry unit he belongs to went to file a police complaint that he was missing.

The arrested jawan was trapped by a well-trained woman operative to spy for Pakistan , say sources. He was lured into explicit chats with her on WhatsApp and Facebook. Soon, his handlers began asking him to provide information on location, movement and exercises related to Indian Army .

“He used to gather information based on his knowledge and his contacts in Army. Information was exchanged via internet-based apps and he seems to have received money in return,” said an officer, adding that his activities came to the notice of intelligence agencies and he was immediately kept under physical and electronic surveillance.

Sources say that the Facebook ID with which the jawan was lured was deactivated soon after they exchanged phone numbers and shifted to WhatsApp. The suspect allegedly got money deposited in his own salary account and that of his colleagues. “Pakistanis are not good paymasters. Not more than Rs 15,000 must have been deposited at a time,” said the officer.

