Ex-serviceman arrested for spying

Tribune News Service

Sangrur/Amritsar, March 3

The State Special Operations Cell (SSOC), a counter-intelligence wing, today arrested an ex-serviceman, Sukhwinder Singh of Dayalgarh in Sangrur, on the charges of spying for Pakistani agencies.

The police claimed to have recovered photographs of vital installations, data related to the movement of Army vehicles and training manuals and handmade maps of restricted defence areas. He was produced in the court, which sent him to six-day police remand.

Employed as a security guard in a private warehouse in Channo village (Sangrur), Sukhwinder was arrested following inputs about his alleged anti-national activities. He had retired as havildar from the 21 Sikh Light Infantry in 2005. Due to his Army background, nobody raised any suspicion on his activities and, therefore, he had an access to restricted Army areas.

Satish Kansal, counsel for the accused, argued in the court that the charges against Sukhwinder were false and fabricated. A special operations team led by Harvinderpal Singh and Balbir Singh nabbed him from Bhawanigarh in Sangrur.

“Preliminary investigations suggested that he was working for Pakistani agencies for the past more than a year. He was given code name Sharmaji,” said an official. He said Sukhwinder was using an expensive smartphone having a 10 megapixel camera with which he allegedly used to click photos of vital installations, Army movements and special drills, he had prepared maps of Nabha and Sangrur Cantonments by hand.

“He was asked to detail the movement of Army units, construction of new bunkers on the Indian side of the border, take pictures of Army vehicles along with their formation signs and to find out about defence exercises and training in the area,” the official said.

Sukhwinder, booked under the Official Secrets Act and the IPC, was allegedly being paid an average of Rs20,000 per month through hawala. The police are also looking for his hawala links.