How India thwarted Pakistan’s bid to steal crucial defence data

How India thwarted Pakistan’s bid to steal crucial defence data left According to a senior intelligence officer, digital honey-trapping served as the primary hook. Getty Images/istockphoto Getty Images/istockphoto Spotlight Officers of the Counter Intelligence Cell of Andhra Pradesh, intrigued by a slew of messaging patterns across various social media platforms, busted a major digital honey-trap racket, including the Indian conduits, whose motive was to leak sensitive defence details, specifically Naval intelligence, to the neighbouring country’s Inter-Services Intelligence, writes Sumit Bhattacharjee VISAKHAPATNAM About six months ago, a team of officers in Andhra Pradesh’s Counter Intelligence Cell (CIC) noticed an unusual pattern of messaging across various social media platforms, including interactive messaging applications such as WhatsApp.

What intrigued the officers was an abnormal frequency of incoming and outgoing international communications. The communication pattern was immediately red-flagged. The CIC team alerted central intelligence agencies and leveraged the resources of NATGRID (National Intelligence Grid) and CMS (Central Monitoring System) ֪— core components of India’s security infrastructure designed to combat terrorism, espionage, and cross-border threats — to trace Internet Protocol (IP) logs and WhatsApp One-Time Password (OTP) sharing patterns.

This initial anomaly marked the beginning of unearthing a far larger conspiracy and espionage racket involving the leaks of sensitive defence details — specifically naval intelligence — by Indian conduits to their handlers in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). After placing the subjects under close surveillance using a combination of technical intelligence (TechInt) and human intelligence (HumInt) for several months, a dedicated team of officers and personnel from Andhra Pradesh’s CIC, in close coordination with Naval Intelligence and Anti-Terrorist Squads (ATS) across 10 States, busted a major Pakistan-sponsored espionage network.

The network reportedly focused on gathering field intelligence on the Indian Navy, with particular emphasis on the Eastern Naval Command (ENC). Code-naming the crackdown as ‘Operation Firewall-2026’, law enforcement agencies moved in to execute arrests. In the process, investigators identified 18 key suspects, including 13 naval personnel spread across 10 States — Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh.

The operation has so far led to the arrest of two individuals. Among them is Pradeep Mukherjee, a sailor in the Indian Navy posted at the ENC, who was taken into custody from INS Agrani in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, where he was undergoing training. The second arrested individual is Annam Sai Varaprasad, a civilian contract driver engaged for naval officers at the Visakhapatnam naval base.

Although the coordinated operation was formally launched on October 1, the Andhra Pradesh CIC announced the arrests on October 5 and 6. The CIC stated that cases were registered under multiple provisions, including Section 61(2) (criminal conspiracy) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), Sections 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), 1967, Section 3 of the Official Secrets Act (OSA), 1923, along with other relevant sections of the BNS.

Mechanics of the espionage network According to sources within Counter Intelligence, the operation followed a pattern typical of cross-border espionage. Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIOs) from the ISI identified vulnerabilities among potential targets, cultivating them to serve as assets within India. The handlers deployed time-tested Vulnerability Mapping and the classic MICE (Money, Ideology, Coercion, and Extortion) framework to initiate contact, cultivate trust, and extract actionable information through digital honey-trapping combined with financial inducements.

“That is precisely why they consistently target sailors or lower-ranking personnel in the Navy — individuals who may be facing financial distress and need money,” noted a senior intelligence official. In this instance, the operatives relied heavily on Social Engineering and open-source intelligence (OSINT) techniques. Handlers systematically scanned social media platforms to identify vulnerable defence personnel, government contractors, or civil servants before setting their traps.

According to a senior intelligence officer, digital honey-trapping served as the primary hook. In such operations, fake female personas are engineered to initiate casual contact. Over time, these interactions graduate into romantic conversations, eventually leading to the exchange of sexually explicit content. While the investigation remains ongoing, preliminary findings confirm that explicit material was exchanged.

However, investigators are still verifying whether these materials were subsequently used as leverage for blackmail to extract classified operational information. Thus far, the investigation revealed that two trained female PIOs operating under the pseudonyms Joshita Pall and Anvi Mehta were in direct contact with the two arrested persons. While Joshita claimed to be an employee at a shipbuilding firm in Mumbai, Anvi posed as a Delhi-based psychologist.

The operatives initially established contact through Facebook before coaxing the targets to transition their conversations to WhatsApp. Technical intelligence gathered by investigators indicates that the operatives approached defence personnel using fictitious social media profiles. Once rapport and trust were established, conversations rapidly shifted to text messaging, encrypted voice calls, and video calls.

The broader strategy relied on fabricated professional identities, promises of romantic relationships, explicit adult content (including compromising video recordings), and monetary incentives paid via cryptocurrency channels. According to a serving commander-rank offic…