Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on Saturday, October 26, arrested a man identified as Pankaj Kotiya, a resident of Porbandar city for allegedly sharing crucial information regarding Indian Coast Guard (ICG) ships with a Pakistani agent.
According to the reports, the Pakistani agent who posed as a woman from Mumbai as ‘Riya’ had been interacting with Kotiya on Facebook for about eight months. During their interactions, Riya pretended to be working with the Indian Navy to gain Kotiya’s trust.
Kotiya, who works as a labourer with ICG jetty in Porbandar, allegedly gave details about the vessels and their locations to a Pakistan-based number through WhatsApp. In return for such personal details, the man was sent Rs 26,000 through UPI transactions by the woman, ATS superintendent of police K Siddharth said.
“We received information that a person named Pankaj Kotiya was transferring sensitive information from Porbandar to Pakistan. He was in contact with a Pakistani woman named ‘Riya’. He used to transfer sensitive information related to the Coast Guard ships and their movement. He received a total amount of Rs 26,000 from 11 different bank accounts. This is a case of a war against the Government of India and a case has been registered under sections 61 and 148 of the BNS. This is not a case of a honey trap, he was doing this for monetary benefit. She also mentioned that she is a Pakistani agent and worked in the Pakistan Navy. He knew that he was giving the information to a Pakistan Navy officer,” the ATS SP said to ANI.
Kotiya and ‘Riya’ have been charged under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections for waging war against the government of India as well as criminal conspiracy, the ATS SP said.
Earlier in May, an intelligence team of the Rajasthan police arrested a person named Anand Raj Singh for allegedly collecting defence information of strategic importance and sharing it with three female handlers in the Pakistan intelligence set-up via social media.
India authority’s data reveals that Pakistani intelligence keeps trying to obtain confidential information about the Indian army by targeting military personnel as well as civilians working around the complex. For this, social media accounts operated on Indian mobile numbers are used by female handlers who honey-trap military personnel and persons having information about the army.
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