Rajasthan Police Arrests Two On Grounds Of Allegedly Spying For Pakistan’s ISI

INTRODUCTION:

Last week, Monday, two men were arrested by the Intelligence unit of the Rajasthan Police on the grounds that they were allegedly spying for Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI.

• The two suspects worked at Army Ammunition Depot in Sri Ganganagar district in Rajasthan.
• “Both the accused were found sharing confidential information with Pakistan’s intelligence agency,” Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Umesh Mishra said. “Both were arrested under relevant sections of Official Secrets Act, 1923. Further investigation is on”, he added.
• A senior official of the Military Intelligence knew about one of the accused activities since last August.
• The two accused have been identified as Vikas Kumar, 29 and Chimal Lal, 22.

WHAT ARE THE ALLEGATIONS?

• It has been reported that on further investigation by the Military Intelligence in Lucknow, it was discovered that Vikas Kumar was cultivated by a Pakistani intelligence operative using a Facebook profile in the grab of ‘Anoshka Chopra’ being run from Multan by a young Pakistani woman.
• It has also been alleged by the police that Kumar had been sharing confidential military information related to Order of Battle, ammunition, units coming for firing practice, personality traits of senior army officers etc. for money.
• The MI shared information wit the Uttar Pradesh Police’s Anti-Terror Squad in January this year after which the two teams carried out joint exercise Operation Desert Chase to monitor Kumar’s activities and nab him.
• The operation was eventually halted due to advent of the Covid-19 pandemic but was resumed in May after Military Intelligence shared the case with the intelligence wing of the Rajasthan Police.
• The police have said the joint teams of the Uttar Pradesh ATS and Military Intelligence detected passage of more information to Pakistan, as well as payments made to the accused. Subsequently, they were arrested on last week, Monday.

• It has been reported that the two accused have been apprehended under the Official Secrets Act, 1923. But what is this Act about?

OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT, 1923:

• The Official Secrets Act, 1923 is a colonial-era law meant for ensuring secrecy and confidentiality in governance, mostly in matters of national security and espionage.
• It mentions that one cannot approach, inspect, or even pass over a prohibited government site or area. According to the Act, helping the enemy State can be in the form of communicating a sketch, plan, a model of an official secret, or passing of/transfer of official codes or passwords, to the enemy.
• Punishments under the Act range from three to fourteen years of imprisonment, and a person prosecuted under this Act can be charged with the crime even if the action was unintentional and not intended to endanger the security of the state.
• The Act empowers only persons in positions of authority to handle official secrets, and others who handle it in prohibited areas or outside them are liable for punishment.
• There is one limitation that under clause 6 of the Act,information from any governmental office is to be considered official information, hence it can be used to override the Right to Information Act, 2005 requests.