The Punjab Police on Tuesday busted a major cross-borderespionage network with the arrest of two Army personnel on charges of spyingand providing classified documents to the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) ofPakistan.
Those arrested have been identified as Sepoy HarpreetSingh (23), who hails from village Cheecha in Amritsar and was posted inAnantnag. He joined the Indian Army in 2017 and belongs to 19 Rashtriya Rifles.Sepoy Gurbhej Singh (23), a native of village Punian in Tarn Taran, belongs to 18Sikh Light Infantry and was working as a clerk in Kargil. He had joined theIndian Army in 2015.
Sharing details, Director General of Police (DGP) PunjabDinkar Gupta, said that Jalandhar Rural Police led by SSP Naveen Singla, whileinvestigating an NDPS case, recovered confidential and secret documents relatedto the functioning and deployment of the Indian Army from cross-border drugsmuggler Ranvir Singh, who was arrested with 70 grams heroin on May 24, 2021.
He said that, during interrogation, Ranvir disclosed thathe got these documents from Sepoy Harpreet Singh, who was his friend, as theyboth belong to the same village.
“Ranvir motivated and lured Sepoy Harpreet Singh withfinancial benefits for sharing defence related classified documents, followingwhich the latter induced his friend Sepoy Gurbhej into such anti-nationalspying activities,” said DGP Dinkar Gupta, while adding that since Gurbhej wasworking as a clerk in 121 Infantry Brigade Headquarters in Kargil, he could geteasy access to these classified documents containing both strategic andtactical information relating to the Indian Army.
He said that both the accused Army personnel had alreadyshared photos of over 900 classified documents— pertaining to defence of thecountry and national security to Ranvir Singh over a period of 4 months betweenFebruary and May 2021 who had further passed them on to Pakistani IntelligenceOfficers.
The DGP revealed that Ranvir further used to send theseclassified documents to either the Pakistan ISI operatives directly or viaGopi, who has been identified as the main drug smuggler from village Dauke inAmritsar having links with Pakistan based drug-smuggling syndicates and ISIofficials, who invariably work in tandem with each other.
Following Ranvir’s disclosures, the Police have alsoarrested Gopi, who has confessed to having transferred classified documents toPakistan-based drug smuggler, one of whom has been identified as Kothar and analleged Pak ISI operative identified as Sikander in lieu of supply of heroinand financial benefits, DGP Dinkar Gupta said adding that all these photographswere transmitted over encrypted Apps.
According to preliminary investigations, DGP Dinkar Guptasaid that Harpreet Singh and Gurbhej Singh got monetary inducements for sharingconfidential information. He said that Ranvir Singh gave money to HarpreetSingh, who further used to transfer it to Gurbhej’s account.
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SSP Naveen Singla said that the Army authorities hadhanded over both the accused Army personnel to Jalandhar Rural Police andfurther investigations were being carried out to ascertain the involvement ofany other accused persons.
Meanwhile, sections 124-A and 120-B of the Indian PenalCode (IPC) and sections 3, 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act have been addedafter nominating the names of both the Army personnel and Gopi in the FIR no.73 dated May 24, 2021, which was initially registered against Ranvir undersections 21(B)/61/85 of the NDPS act at Police Station Mehatpur in JalandharRural.