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A man, who was allegedly working as a spy for Pakistani intelligence agencies, was today arrested here by the State Special Operations Cell (SSOC) and Military Intelligence, the Punjab Police said.
On the basis of specific information, a team of SSOC led by Inspector Gurinderpal Singh arrested Ravi Kumar from the Chatiwind police station area in Amritsar district.
Photographs of vital installations, hand-made maps of restricted areas, photocopies of restricted training manuals of the Army and information regarding Army attack formations were recovered from him, according to a Punjab Police release.
He has been booked under the provisions of the Official Secrets Act, and Section 120-B of the IPC.
The preliminary questioning of Kumar revealed that he was recruited by an official of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) through Facebook about seven months ago.
He gave them information with regard to the movement of “Army units, construction of new bunkers on the Indian side of the border, photographs of Army vehicles and their formation signs, exercises and trainings and activity/construction”, the release read.
Kumar’s ISI handlers sponsored his visit to Dubai from February 20 to 24 where he was briefed regarding tasks, the Punjab Police said.
Investigations have revealed that Kumar was in regular touch with Pakistani intelligence officers through mobile phones and Internet and was provided funds routed through Dubai.
The release read: “It has also come to light that Pakistan-based agencies operate a large number of fake Facebook accounts in the name of young girls who actively try to befriend with unemployed young people and retired/serving officials in the armed force and subsequently try to allure them into espionage activities.”
Investigations are being conducted to identify and track such fake accounts. Defence establishments are also being appraised regarding this new threat for necessary action at their end, it said.
