During the Cold War, intelligence agencies extensively used the amorous art of espionage to obtain secrets from enemies. If East Germany deployed “Romeo spies’’ as a cost-effective way to steal secrets—selecting well-educated men with good old-fashioned manners to identify a potential “Juliet” who had access to information they were after—the Russian spy plots involved female “swallows” to extract classified secrets.
Pakistan’s ISI seems to have refined this age-old art in the digital space, carrying out lucrative spy operations in the last decade . Chats and video calls have replaced the operational risk of physical meetings, and entrapments begin with something as innocuous as a social media post. What follows is intimacy and attraction that blurs the gap between real and virtual, catching many by surprise. The same playbook seems to have come in handy when an Indian Air Force wing commander got trapped in a “larger espionage network”. Before he knew it, he was allegedly handing down “crucial documents and data” to a woman through digital communication channels.
Delhi police sources said the officer was arrested on May 31 and booked under the Official Secrets Act. Two months after his arrest, he is yet to get bail and remains in judicial custody.
Multiple agencies are examining how he was honey-trapped into leaking sensitive defence information. The case is one among a string of instances where social media has been used by the Pakistani spy agency to trap military officials. In the last few years, advisories have been issued by the government to military and paramilitary personnel to discontinue use of around 42 mobile applications that offer chatting platforms to engage with virtual “friends” . These apps were found to be sneaking in spyware and other malware, mostly of Chinese origin, into the devices.
According to investigators, the modus operandi was simple in this case. The officer was allegedly approached on social media by a woman suspected to be working at the behest of the Pakistani spy agency. Apparently taking advantage of his personal problems, she lured him into sharing details about his life to build trust. Later, they communicated over chat and video calls where she coaxed him into installing a mobile application suspected to be spyware or remote-access malware capable of extracting data, accessing location and possibly compromising his official communication as well. While the IAF has reiterated its zero tolerance on such matters and taken swift action in the matter, security officials said the case is only one amongst a series of honey trap cases that have come to light in the last decade.
The Intelligence Bureau had made a list of many such virtual identities that were trying to trap security and military officials – Beautybee, Shahzadi, Sonu Kaur, Amita Amey, Smita Patel, to name a few—using female identities. However , sources said these profiles were actively being run by burly spy agents sitting across the border, carrying out targeted operations to steal sensitive information.
Intelligence officials said these honey trap operations are usually carried out through at least three layers where the first level of contact is established by a junior spy, then a more specialised person takes over the conversation, and finally the target is compromised by a third level of specialists who come in at the end to complete the “honey trap” ring.
In 2018, a BSF constable, Achuytanand Mishra, had been honey-trapped by the ISI on Facebook. When the Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorism Squad arrested him on a tip-off by the Military Intelligence Unit in Chandigarh, the counter-espionage team of the ATS found that Mishra, who had joined BSF in 2006, had befriended a woman on Facebook in 2016. The father of two got attracted to the woman and allegedly passed on sensitive details about his unit's location, pictures and videos, besides details of weapons and ammunition used by the border guarding forces deployed along the International border with Pakistan. The same year, a Group Captain at the IAF headquarters in Vayu Bhavan was found to have allegedly befriended two ‘girls’, Mahima Patel and Kiran Randhawa, with whom he was learnt to have shared details of a forthcoming air exercise, and even sent phone-camera copies of classified papers. When the Delhi Police Special Cell sleuths checked the IP addresses of Kiran and Mahima, both were found to be in Pakistan.
Such investigations take time, security sources said, as digital profiles need to be examined, social media platforms need to be roped in, and finally digital footprints need to be established to unravel the espionage operation. According to Indian intelligence agencies, the Pakistani spy agency has created several fake accounts of travellers, foodies, beauticians and so on as part of an information warfare strategy where social media allows them easy access to information to compromise or recruit vulnerable and gullible victims.
“There is a need to follow the standard operating procedures without any exceptions,” said a senior security official. “In case of any alleged violation, even inadvertently, it is necessary to alert the security agencies so that the gap is plugged at the earliest.”
