2 Civil Defence Employees Arrested For Allegedly Passing Info To Pakistan’s ISI

Report by: Nandika Chand | Last Updated June 8, 2020

Military intelligence with the help of Rajasthan Police have arrested two civil defence employees for allegedly passing information to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

Sources said one of the two accused was allegedly honey-trapped by a Multan-based female ISI operative on social media. She ran a pseudonymous Facebook account, on pretence of being a woman by the name Anoshka Chopra based in India.

The military intelligence in collaboration with the Rajasth Police successfully caught a Vikas Kumar, a civil defence employee at an Army Ammunition Depot and a Chiman Lal, a civil contractual employee of the Army’s Mahajan Field Firing Range (MFFR). Both men have been accused of working as spies and passing sensitive information to Pakistan’s ISI in exchange for money.

In August 2019, military intelligence found that Kumar was receiving payments in his own bank account as well as his brother’s. The agency shared the case details with the Rajasthan Police in January this year and an operation, code named ‘Desert Chase’ was launched. They monitored the movement of Kumar. Intelligence came to know about Lal as he was the one from whom Kumar acquired photos of a water distribution register at a pump house in MFFR on a daily basis.

Kumar, during interrogation, revealed details of his female Facebook friend who was actually a Pakistani Intelligence Operative (PIO). He revealed that he made several WhatsApp group upon her requests, and there are a number of serving defence and civil defence employees in this groups. Kumar also confessed of having received Rs75,000 for his role.