ISI agents honey trapped Indian man to divulge border secrets, police say

The Rajasthan Police’s intelligence unit detained a 22-year-old man on Sunday on suspicion of being a Pakistani spy and providing Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) with sensitive and critical information regarding the Bikaner border region. The intelligence wing continuously keeps an eye on the ISI’s operations in the border regions, according to Additional Director General of Police (ADGP) S Sengathir. “It was discovered during this surveillance that Narendra Kumar, 22, uses social media to communicate with two female agents of the Pakistani espionage agency on a regular basis. It seems they had him tricked by them,” he remarked. Kumar, a native of Anandgarh Khajuwala in Bikaner, close to the international border between India and Pakistan, and a bike mechanic by trade, was picked up right away on Saturday and taken to the Joint Interrogation Centre in Jaipur. During questioning, he disclosed that approximately two years prior, he interacted with Facebook accounts run by “Poonam Bajwa” and “Sunita”. Poonam, who claimed to be from Bathinda in Punjab, stated she was employed by BSF as a data entry operator. Sengathir claimed that Poonam made friends with Kumar and used the promise of marriage to entice him to divulge private information about the border region. After providing Narendra with a WhatsApp number, Poonam asked him to provide sensitive information regarding Indian land near the international border, including pictures of army vehicles, towers, bridges, BSF installations, and highways. Narendra complied. Sunita, the other woman, pretended to be a local reporter for a national daily in order to gain Kumar’s friendship. She also desired that Narendra divulge private details to her. According to the ADGP, Kumar acknowledged that he had also given Sunita access to this material. Following a technical analysis of Kumar’s cell phone, he was promptly placed under custody and charged under the Official Secrets Act, 1923.