Honey-trapped by a ‘defence reporter’ via Facebook, leaks confidential military info

A Border Security Force (BSF) constable has been arrested on charges of spying for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan after being ‘honey-trapped’ through social media, the Uttar Pradesh police said on Wednesday.

U.P. Director General of Police O.P. Singh said the accused, Achutanand Mishra, confessed to sharing confidential information regarding military establishments to a woman who claimed to be a “defence reporter” from Pakistan. The two were in touch since January 2016.

The jawan was arrested from Noida by a team of the U.P. Anti-Terrorism Squad on the basis of inputs shared by the military intelligence, Chandigarh, that Army and paramilitary jawans were being honey-trapped through Facebook profiles of women.

Following this, the ATS said its counter-espionage team found several Facebook profiles that were in touch with such fake profiles.

Mr. Mishra was allegedly lured into sharing confidential military information by the woman. “They started with juicy conversations and soon Mishra started revealing secret information [to the woman] about the location of BSF units, details of their arms and ammunition and photos and videos of BSF establishments,” the ATS said in a statement.

Cyber evidence

Mr. Singh said they had extracted the data from the jawan’s mobile phone and Facebook profile and found enough “cyber evidence,” including images and videos, to implicate him.

Apart from conversing on Facebook, the jawan chatted with the woman on WhatsApp where he saved her Pakistan coded number under the name “Pakistani dost,” said the ATS, adding that he was being influenced towards conversion and anti-India ideas on Kashmir.

The jawan faces charges under Sections 3,4,5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act, 121A of the Indian Penal Code pertaining to waging war against the government and Section 66D of the IT Act.

Mr. Singh said an intensive interrogation would be conducted to find out if the jawan had a network and what motivated him. His bank accounts would be checked to ascertain if he received any money for sharing information. The ATS will also question him on the information he allegedly leaked to the ISI.

ATS Inspector General Aseem Arun said a remand of five days had been granted to question the jawan.