Indian Navy sailors booked for espionage leaked vital information to Pakistan Intelligence Operatives: NIA

The Indian Navy personnel, who were arrested on charges of passing information to a Pakistani handler, have reportedly leaked highly sensitive information of the Indian Navy to the Pakistan Intelligence Operatives (PIOs).

The National Investigation Agency (NIA), Naval Intelligence and the Counter Intelligence of the Andhra Pradesh (A.P.) so far arrested 13 sailors of different States on charges of espionage.

The agency found that huge amounts had been transferred to these Navy men who have passed on crucial information to PIOs. The agents are grilling the banks about why these suspicious transactions were not flagged and the concerned authorities alerted.

Operation Dolphin’s Nose

“We began the operation named ‘Dolphin Nose’ a few months ago and kept a vigil on the movements of suspects in Indian Navy of different bases, their mobile phones and social media contacts. More suspects are still under watch,” an investigation officer told The Hindu.

The arrested Navy personnel reportedly revealed the names of the ships and submarines, top level officers, routes they operate, details of other colleagues recruited recently from various naval bases. They also disclosed about some vital locations, movements of warships and submarines.

Money and honey-traps

“Through the Pakistani handler, who introduced himself as a businessman, the PIOs transferred huge amounts into the bank accounts of the arrested sailors. The young Navy personnel were honey-trapped by women through various social media groups and this has been happening for the last one year,” the investigation officer said.

NIA is probing into whether any terror groups were involved and the plan behind gathering this intelligence. The investigating agencies are checking if terror groups were planning to target the Indian Navy, or to carry out a major operation through the sea route.

Bank books and chats

The Naval Intelligence, NIA and the State and Central agencies, who collected the bank transactions and the chats between the sailors and the women reportedly arranged by the Pakistani handler, confirmed that the transactions were made repeatedly and are questioning the officials of the financial institutions in this regard.

“We have arrested 13 Navy personnel so far. Investigation agencies are trying to find out on with how many persons of the Navy, the Pakistani handler is in contact in the last one-and-a-half year, and how much vital information has been revealed. The PIOs developed relationship separately with the sailors and extracted key information from them,” the investigation officer said.