11 Indian Navy personnel were caught leaking sensitive information via social media to Pakistani intelligence operatives.
New Delhi| 11 employees of the Indian Navy have been caught in the honey trap of Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. So far 13 people, including 11 Indian Navy employees, have been arrested in connection with the charges of connection with Pakistani espionage racket.
Giving information, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has said that the police have arrested these people from several naval bases of the country including Mumbai, Karwar, and Visakhapatnam.
“Thirteen personnel have so far have been apprehended in the case and the probe has been widened to other suspected social media profiles of personnel who could have been in touch with Pakistani intelligence operatives,” India Navy sources said.
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The case had started after a joint operation involving the Andhra Pradesh Police, Naval intelligence and central intelligence agencies arrested seven Navy personnel who have been allegedly involved in the espionage.
The case is under investigation by the police authorities of Andhra Pradesh in which the Naval Intelligence is providing full cooperation.
After being honey-trapped, these men had leaked sensitive information related to the Indian Navy through their social media profiles.
After the misuse of social media by the naval personnel came to light, the Indian Navy imposed a strict ban on the use of smartphones and social media applications such as Facebook by its personnel.
However, no such ban has enforced by the Indian Army and India Air Force (IAF) even though they have also faced similar cases in the past few months.
Sources in the Navy said the sudden ban on using smartphones has created issues for the personnel in establishing contact with families and doing their other digital work for personnel use.
The India Navy has allowed the use of older mobile phones using 2G connectivity which experts feel, is of limited use and can possibly be intercepted.
However, the Naval sources said the restraints on the use of smartphones and social media exposing personnel identity have existed for a long time and they are just being strictly implemented right now.
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