JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Police on Saturday busted an espionage racket with the arrest of two Indian nationals, who were sending vital information to the Pakistan Intelligence agency.
The arrested accused have been identified as Narayan Lal, 27, a resident of Bhilwara, and Kuldeep Singh Shekhawat, 24, a resident of Jaipur.
The police got a tip-off from the central intelligence agencies about the involvement of the duo in espionage. They kept a watch on their activities.
According to police, Lal arranged the video of murder of Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal Teli by two Muslim men and sent it to the Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIOs). He also provided them five Indian SIM cards for monetary gains.
The Rajasthan Police said that Lal, a class five pass out, used to do driving job and sold kulfi door-to-door. He was also a goat seller and a bhajan singer.
Shekhawat worked in an alcohol shop. He was in touch with the Pakistan intelligence agencies through the social media. Shekhawat made a fake account of an Indian soldier and befriended many Indian jawans.
The police said that Lal got in touch with a PIO after he left a pornographic WhatsApp group. The police said that after exiting the WhatsApp group, he received a message from a Pakistani number who introduced himself as Anil.
Despite knowing that Anil was from Pakistan, Lal continued his communication with him and spoke to him on WhatsApp calls, the police said.
“Anil then introduced Lal to another PIO Sahil, who also was using an Indian WhatsApp number and claimed to be in Delhi,” the police said.
“They encouraged Lal to plan a trip to Pakistan and promised to sponsor the trip fully and facilitated his documentation process. They also promised to host him well in Pakistan. To initiate his passport and visa, Lal had shared photos of his Adhaar card, diving licence, PAN card and passport photos with the PIOs,” the police said.
The two PIOs then insisted Lal to provide some Indian SIM cards in exchange for money. Lal agreed and procured two SIM cards in his name. He used one of them to receive a WhatsApp OTP on behalf of Anil, hence facilitating the latter to acquire a new WhatsApp account, this time on an Indian number,” the police said.
Lal sent the SIM cards to the PIOs on a desired address and he further sent three more Indian SIM cards (five in total) to the PIOs; for this, the PIOs had paid him Rs 5,000, police said.
The police added that the PIOs had asked Lal on multiple occasions to enter military cantonments, befriend Army personnel, introduce them to the PIOs and also send locations, photos and videos of military places.
Lal had accepted to send photos of a random military vehicle in Udaipur and a random Army personnel in uniform at Ahmedabad. He accepted to send few photos of Ahmedabad railway station and the murder video of the tailor in Udaipur, the police said.
The Pakistani agents also asked Lal to look for a shopping space adjacent to Udaipur cantonment, so that they he can set up a photocopy stall there.
“For this work, they had sent Rs 2,000- 3,000 to Lal. They also promised to provide Rs 4-5 lakh to set up the shop and bear expenses towards salary of a photocopy-machine operator. In return, they wanted copies of all military documents that would come to the shop for photocopying,” the police claimed.
“On the request of PIOs, Lal had visited the area adjacent to Udaipur cantonment, carried out a survey, shortlisted a shop, shared contact details of the shop-owner with the PIOs and made him talk to one of the two PIOs. He had also accepted to have shared the Google Map current location of the identified shop with the PIOs,” the police said.
“Lal was arrested by the Rajasthan Police before he could send more SIM cards or more photos or videos or locations of military personnel or vehicles or installations or procure a photostat stall near Udaipur,” the police added.
He and Shekhawat were arrested and booked under several sections of the CrPC and Official Secret Act.