Honeytrap case: Charges filed against jawan, 2 others

JAIPUR: Three months after it arrested an Army jawan, Somvir (23), for leaking confidential information to an ISI operative through video calling, the Rajasthan police’s intelligence division submitted a comprehensive chargesheet against the honeytrapped jawan and two others before a local court on Wednesday, revealing a sprawling espionage activities racket that dogged detection several times.

ADGP (Intelligence) Umesh Mishra said that chargesheet was presented before the court on Wednesday. The State Special Branch (SSB) of Rajasthan police have booked the former Army jawan Somvir (23), and two Delhi-based mobile shop retailers- Shah Nawaz (32) and Irfan (42), under Official Secrets (OS) Act, and Sections 419 (cheating by personation) and 420 (Cheating) of the IPC.

Shah Nawaz and Irfan were part of an Indian cell of the ISI which included another arrested accused Parvez, the preliminary task of this squad included procuring Indian mobile sim cards based on fraudulent and forged documents, and later handing them over to Pakistani handlers.

The sleuths said that Pakistani handlers used these phone numbers to generate fake WhatsApp profiles to lure Army jawans like Somvir into spying. An official said that the ISI needed these Indian phone numbers only to activate WhatsApp. No calls were made through these numbers.

The SSB in its chargesheet said that Anika Chopra, the person behind the fake social ID who honeytrapped Somvir, also used one of the same sim card numbers which were fraudulently procured by the accused.

The Rajasthan police had on January 11 arrested Somvir from Jaisalmer district. He had also received amount of Rs 5,000 for sharing information with “Anika Chopra.” Somvir has been accused of sending photos of tanks and weapons before he asked Anika to transfer some money into his brother’s bank account. After subsequent interrogation with the accused Army jawan, the police teams were sent to New Delhi which On January 31arrested Shah Nawaz and Irfan and also seized mobile phones, documents and computers from them.