Mumbai man paid naval sailors honey trapped by Pak spies on Facebook, arrested
Mohammed Haroon Lakdawala used to travel to Karachi in Pakistan for cross-border trade. During one of these visits, he came in contact with two spies Akbar and Rizwan who arranged with him to make deposits into the bank account of navy personnel at regular intervals, an NIA statement said.
A 49-year-old Mumbai man, suspected to be key conduit in touch with Pakistan spies in the Visakhapatnam espionage case, has been arrested for paying off navy personnel, the National Investigation Agency said on Friday.
Mohammed Haroon Lakdawala used to travel to Karachi in Pakistan for cross-border trade. During one of these visits, he came in contact with two spies Akbar and Rizwan who arranged with him to make deposits into the bank account of navy personnel at regular intervals, an NIA statement said.
The NIA had taken over the probe in late December.
The spy ring was busted much earlier by the Andhra Pradesh police that had been working along with central intelligence agencies. The security agencies dubbed it “Operation Dolphin Nose”, a reference to the hill next to the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam where naval offices and a residential complex are located.
In all, 14 people including 11 navy personnel and a Pakistani-born Indian national Shaista Qaiser have been arrested in this case.
According to the NIA, Pakistan-based spies recruited agents in India to collect sensitive and classified information regarding movements of naval ships, submarines and location of other defence establishments.
The navy personnel had mostly come in contact with Pakistani nationals through various social media platforms such as Facebook and WhatsApp etc. The payments were made via Lakdawala.
Investigators had earlier told Hindustan Times that the navy personnel, mostly sailors, had not revealed any significant information and were paid between Rs 5,000 and Rs 10,000.
