The arrest of a younger couple in Delhi on Friday has put the highlight again on espionage rackets run by Pakistan’s Inter-Providers Intelligence (ISI) in India.
A detailed examine of such current instances factors to an organised and meticulously deliberate operation tied collectively by not less than three frequent threads—on-line entrapment, honeytrapping, and scouting for data associated to India’s defence belongings and infrastructure, in accordance with officers aware about the developments.
Social media used to seek out targets
Within the hunt for targets, it’s believed that Pakistani brokers scan Indian social media profiles to zero in on defence or authorities officers in uniform, and even civilians exhibiting indicators of vulnerability.
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As soon as targets are recognized, they’re approached utilizing accounts operated by means of largely Indian SIM playing cards. Conversations that begin on a pleasant notice from accounts flashing ladies’s photographs can spiral rapidly—and those that take the bait and share intimate photographs can then be pressured to share delicate data or support espionage operations.
For instance, within the Delhi case, Mohammad Sahil, 25, and his wife Sameera, 21, allegedly procured eight Indian SIM playing cards and despatched them to Pakistan by way of Dubai between 2024 and 2025. These SIM cards, investigators said, were used to activate WhatsApp accounts from Pakistan and entry Indian teams to collect delicate data.
Nudity as bait for extracting essential information
In the case of Indian defence or authorities officers, honeytrapping seems to be a go-to possibility within the ISI playbook. Though lively surveillance by Indian companies and legislation enforcement foils many such plots, some nonetheless fall prey.
A serving Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander, arrested in May, has been accused of leaking sensitive information to Pakistani agents after being honeytrapped. One nude for one web page of fight plan—that was what the particular person he was chatting with promised, in accordance with officers aware about the probe. The IAF official can also be accused of putting in data-stealing software program on a colleague’s cell phone.
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In one other broadly reported case, former Defence Analysis and Growth Organisation (DRDO) scientist Pradeep Kurulkar, 62, has been charged with passing delicate data to a Pakistani intelligence operative going by the title of “Zara Dasgupta”.
Kurulkar, 62, was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on Could 3, 2023. By the top of June that yr, officers had ready an 1,837-page chargesheet over his alleged exchanges with the operative.
Only a yr later, in early 2024, Satendra Siwal, an India-based Safety Assistant (IBSA) on the Indian Embassy in Moscow since 2021, was arrested for alleged spying after being honeytrapped. He had entry to delicate embassy paperwork.
