The Andhra Pradesh police arrested seven Navy personnel on Friday for passing on sensitive information through social media platforms to a Pakistani handler after they fell into “honey-trap” in September 2018.
The non-officer rank personnel were posted at naval bases at Mumbai, Karwar (Karnataka) and Visakhapatnam. 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. “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,” the Andhra Pradesh Police said in a Press release.
Further investigation is on, said police and Navy officials, adding the seven sailors were giving out “unauthorised information” through Facebook and other social media tools. Mumbai has the Western Naval command headquarters and most VIPs land at the helicopter base there.