India’s Punjab police claim to have busted a major cross-border espionage network as it arrested two Army personnel on charges of allegedly spying and providing classified documents to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The police on Tuesday said that the accused - Sepoy Harpreet Singh (19 Rashtriya Rifles) and Sepoy Gurbhej Singh (18 SikhLi) - shared photographs of at least 900 classified documents with Pakistani agents.
“Ranvir motivated and lured Sepoy Harpreet Singh with financial benefits for sharing defence related classified documents, following which the latter induced his friend Sepoy Gurbhej into such anti-national spying activities”, said Dinkar Gupta.
These classified documents containing both strategic and tactical information relating to the Indian Army were accessed by Gurbhej Singh while he was posted at the Infantry Brigade Headquarters in Kargil.
Police said that these documents were shared with Pakistan’s federal intelligence agency the ISI over a period of four months between February and May 2021.
In 2019, dozens of Army and Air Force personnel were arrested after military intelligence caught them sharing confidential information with Pakistani handlers. Amid the exponential rise in spy cases against the Armed Forces, the government set up a cyber monitoring cell in the Army to monitor the use of social media by its personnel, especially on non-encrypted sites.