Amritsar: Army man among two held for leaking info to Pak intel agency

The Amritsar rural police on Sunday arrested two persons, including an Army jawan, for allegedly spying for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

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They were identified as Gurpreet Singh, alias Gopi Fauji, currently posted in Jammu, and Sahil Masih, both residents of Dhariwal village falling under the Lopoke police station area here.

Director General of Police (DGP) Gaurav Yadav said Fauji was in direct contact with the Paksitan’s ISI operatives and suspected to have shared sensitive information via pen drives with their handler Rana Javed.

“The police recovered two mobile phones containing virtual numbers used for communicating with their operatives. Further investigation is underway to dismantle the broader espionage-terror network and identify all collaborators in this case,” he said.

SSP Maninder Singh said Fauji was recruited into the Army in 2016 and systematically exploited his official position to collect, store and transmit classified military information via pen drives and discs.

He said during preliminary interrogation it was found that the espionage network was being facilitated by a Dubai-based drug trafficker, Arjan, who originally hailed from Dhariwal village,” he said, adding that he introduced Gurpreet to ISI operatives five months ago.

“Since then, Gurpreet has been actively engaged in the unauthorised collection and relay of sensitive military data to the ISI using pre-decided drop locations,” he added.

The SSP said in lieu of this espionage activity, Gurpreet was receiving money through a complex financial network involving intermediary bank accounts of friends, relatives and foreign associates to evade detection.

“In an intelligence-led operation, police teams arrested Gurpreet and his associate Sahil Masih while they were attempting another handover of sensitive data,” he said.

The officer said further investigation was in progress to unravel the wider nexus and identify additional conspirators, both domestic and foreign-based.