Pakistani spy in touch with CRPF official contacted 15 other army, govt officials: Report

Jat was arrested on May 27 by the NIA for allegedly spying for Pakistan- Representative photo

The Pakistani intelligence operative, who was in touch with CRPF assistant sub-inspector Moti Ram Jat, for classified information, was also reportedly in contact with 15 other phone numbers linked to the Indian Army, paramilitary forces and government personnel.

Jat was arrested on May 27 by the NIA for allegedly spying for Pakistan. He had reportedly been sharing classified information with Pakistani intelligence officers since 2023. Sources told Indian Express that with the help of technical surveillance, intelligence agencies found that apart from contacting Jat, the Pakistani operative, whose code name is Salim Ahmed, was in touch with at least 15 other phone numbers.

“After scanning call detail records and internet protocol detail records, it was found that four of these numbers belong to personnel of the Army, four more to those of paramilitary forces and the remaining seven to staffers in various departments of the central government,” sources said.

The SIM card for a phone number through which Jat was contacted was also procured from Kolkata by a man who shared the activation OTP with the Pakistani operative based in Lahore. “The Kolkata man had married a Pakistani national in 2007 and shifted to Pakistan in 2014. He travelled to Kolkata twice in a year,” the sources said.

According to the IE report, Jat allegedly sent several “sensitive documents” to his handler in Lahore for regular payments of up to Rs 12,000 for two years. The funds were deposited into the bank accounts of Jat and his wife from accounts in multiple locations, including Delhi, Maharashtra, Haryana, UP, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Assam and West Bengal.

“One of the senders has been identified as Shahzad, who was arrested in May by the Uttar Pradesh ATS for allegedly passing on classified information to ISI handlers while engaging in the cross-border smuggling of clothes, spices and cosmetics. Shahzad has claimed that he once transferred Rs 3,500 to Jat after he was asked by a co-passenger in a train from Punjab to Delhi to send money to a family member. He claimed that he was given Rs 3,500 in cash by the co-passenger to make the online transaction,” sources told IE.

Jat reportedly claimed that he was initially contacted by a woman who posed as a journalist in a Chandigarh-based TV channel. “After regular exchanges over phone and video calls, he began sharing documents with her,” sources told IE.

A few months later, a man, allegedly a Pakistani official, took over the conversation, continuing the ruse as a fellow journalist.

Jat allegedly provided “multiple classified documents related to security personnel deployment, multi-agency centre reports posted on official WhatsApp groups, information of troops movement and locations of terrorist movement, according to reports.