Operation Desert Chase: 2 ISI agents arrested from Rajasthan; modus operandi revealed
Two agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were arrested by the Rajasthan Police on Monday. Those nabbed were identified as Vikas Kumar, 29, and Chiman Lal, aged 22. Kumar was working as a civil defense employee at an army ammunition depot near Sri Ganganagar in Rajasthan while Lal was a civil contractual employee of the Army's Mahajan Field Firing Range (MFFR) in Bikaner.
In August 2019, Lucknow-based military intelligence learnt about Vikas Kumar, the espionage agent who was passing military information to his handlers in Pakistan. He was cultivated by a Pakistani Intelligence Operative (PIO) who was using a Facebook profile, in the garb of one Anoshka Chopra, being run from Multan in Pakistan. The intelligence ascertained that Vikas Kumar was passing military information related to ORBAT (Order of Battle; composition and order of a military fighting formation), ammunition (photos, state, quantity, type, arrival, departure), units coming for firing practice/military exercise to the Mahajan Field Firing Range, personality traits of senior army officers, in lieu of money. It was also found that Kumar was receiving payments in three of his bank accounts.
In January 2020, the military intelligence shared the case with Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS). Kumar's activities were being closely monitored and analyzed by a joint team of Lucknow military intelligence and UP ATS. The operation was code-named 'Desert Chase'.
Later, Chiman Lal's role also came into light. It was learnt that Vikas was acquiring photos of a "water distribution register" at a water point/pump house in the Mahajan Field Firing Range through Chiman Lal, who was working as a contractual civil employee.
In May 2020, the case was shared with the Rajasthan Police Intelligence. A joint team of Rajasthan Police Intelligence and military intelligence Lucknow was also constituted and all the findings were analyzed again. More details were acquired and conclusive pieces of evidence were gathered.
The teams also detected fresh payments and the passage of more information to Pakistan. It was on Monday when both of them were finally arrested.
PAKISTANI HANDLERS USE HONEYTRAP
During police questioning, Vikas Kumar confessed that he accepted a friend request on Facebook from Pakistan Intelligence operative Anoshka Chopra, somewhere between March-April in 2019. Both of them engaged in friendly talks, shared their WhatsApp numbers, began chatting and making audio/video calls. The female was using an Indian WhatsApp number and claimed to be working with the Canteen Store Department (CSD) headquarters in Mumbai.
Profile of Pakistani handler operating by the name 'Anoshka Chopra.
Furthermore, Vikas Kumar joined several WhatsApp groups on the woman's insistence. She was also a part of all those groups and so were many of the serving defense and civil defense employees. Subsequently, she introduced Vikas Kumar to her "boss", Amit Kumar Singh, a pseudo name used by the Pakistani handler. He too was using an Indian WhatsApp number. At times, he claimed to be from the CSD and sometimes from Military Engineer Services (MES). Once Vikas and Singh started communicating, Anoshka Chopra blocked her from Facebook and WhatsApp.
The handler convinced Vikas to send him military information in exchange for money. The sequence of tasking by the handler and reporting by Vikas Kumar started around the end of April 2019. Maximum information passed by Vikas to the Pakistani handler was acquired by Kumar himself or Chiman Lal. The latter used to regularly send photos of "water- distribution- register" which was placed at one of the pump house of MFFR with details of Army Number, Rank, Name, Unit, Total Strength & Quantity of water drawn on almost daily basis.
Water distribution register.
Vikas Kumar also confessed that he had passed information of sensitive nature to the Pakistani handler. These included details received from Chiman Lal about Army units and their strength coming to MFFR, details of ammunition coming to his ammunition depot including their type, quantity, mode of transportation, date of arrival on a routine basis (almost every time it came to his notice). Details of ammunition (to include their type, quantity and mode/date of transportation) further distributed/transferred to local army establishments/ units (including two local brigades) and elsewhere from his ammunition depot, were also shared to the handler. Among the information that was shared also included ORBAT (Order of battle; composition related details) of two local army brigades and all changes in them as they came to his notice.
Name, rank, and the personality traits of some senior military officers in the two army brigades nearby, his ammunition depot and others who visited the military station, were also revealed to the handler. He had also shared photos of arms, ammunition, tanks other military vehicles (with their tactical numbers) at MFFR whenever he could visit it after April 2019.
In March-April 2020, Vikas was warned by someone saying that the group was being run by Pakistani spies. On multiple occasions, Vikas realised that both Anoshka Chopra and Amit Kumar Singh were from inimical intelligence agencies. However, he continued to pass on critical information in greed for money. Vikas revealed that the last communication with the handler happened yesterday.
He confessed to have received at least ₹75,000/- in total from his Pakistani handler for the information he had shared during this period. He used to receive the amounts in his or his brother's bank accounts. Out of this sum, he had paid about Rs 9,000 to Chiman Lal for his assistance.
More details are being examined by Rajasthan Police Intelligence and military intelligence. Other agencies too have joined the investigation. Both the arrested agents are likely to be produced before a local court soon by the police. A police remand may be requested for further examination.
