Seven Navy personnel were arrested on Friday for alleged espionage by the Andhra Pradesh police. The non-officer rank personnel were posted at three different naval bases including Mumbai, Karwar(Karnataka) and Visakhapatnam. They reportedly leaked sensitive information through social media after reportedly getting honey-trapped. A hawala operator was also arrested in this connection.
All the sailors were arrested in a joint operation code-named "Dolphin's Nose" launched by the Naval intelligence wing, Andhra Pradesh police and central intelligence agencies. The Andhra Pradesh police said in a press release "an FIR has been lodged and seven Navy personnel and a hawala operator have been arrested from different parts of the country. Some more suspects are being questioned."
Further investigation is on, police and navy officials said adding the seven sailors were giving out "unauthorised information" through Facebook and other social media tools.
It is one of the biggest cases in recent past as the seven sailors were arrested from three sensitive naval bases. While Mumbai has the Western Naval command headquarters and most VIPs land at the helicopter base there, submarine construction base of nuclear powered Arihant submarines besides the Eastern Naval command headquarters are in Visakhapatnam. Country's lone aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya's base is in Karwar.
Given the sensitive nature of these three locations, the Navy along with other agencies is carrying out further investigations about the kind of information leaked by the arrested sailors, sources said in New Delhi.
As regards the name given to the operation, they said Dolphin's Nose is a hill adjacent to Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam, housing the residential complexes and offices of Indian Navy. The hill resembles to Dolphin's nose
The police arrested three sailors from Visakhapatnam, two from Karwar naval base, and two from Mumbai naval base. According to sources, all these seven sailors were recruited in 2017 and they fell into a honey trap in September 2018. Some women befriended the sailors on Facebook and established a relationship. As per the plan, the women introduced them online to a Pakistani handler, who masqueraded as a businessman and was taking information from the sailors.
The sailors, whose chats with the women were sexual in nature, were also blackmailed later to reveal the positions and movement of Indian warships and submarines. The sailors were also paid money every month through a hawala operator, according to sources.
"These seven sailors would return from ships and submarines and reveal the locations and work they did from about September-October last year. They passed on a lot of sensitive information," a source said.
Incidentally, a similar case involving at least two soldiers leaking information through social media came to light two months back in Rajasthan despite the armed forces regularly cautioning its personnel to be careful while using social media applications.
In fact, the Army recently warned its jawans and officers against 150 fake social media profiles, including of phoney spiritual gurus and babas, being used by Pakistan's Intelligence officers to honeytrap officials for extracting sensitive military information.
Officials said these people through the social media try to trap gullible and vulnerable soldiers facing personal problems. After gaining their confidence over a period of time, these self-proclaimed gurus working for the enemy then try to seek information about movement of troops and other sensitive military information, said sources.
In an advisory issued in mid-October to its personnel, the Army asked them to avoid interacting with unknown social media profiles.
Incidentally, Pakistan has been found using fake sites to even target railway personnel especially posted on sensitive railway stations in an effort to gain intelligence about train movement carrying troops and weapons for exercises and deployment, said sources.
People using fake profiles are on different social media platforms who target Army personnel, their families and even retired Army personnel, the sources added.
The threat is more prominent in civil areas with the Army coming in contact with the public and the men in uniform may give out sensitive information. Some of the fake identities pose as nurses or claim to be from the Army Headquarters seeking details about the whereabouts of the personnel from their families.
The fake profiles are generally 2-3 years old, so, they do not raise suspicion. It is then that they started targeting Army personnel, officials added.
As regards counter-measures, the Army is regularly sensitising the troops in all the sensitive units about the social media threat and cautioning them to refrain from accepting friend request from unknown persons. They have been told to not post their photographs in uniform.