The West Bengal Police have arrested Aditya Singh, an alleged associate of Jaish-e-Mohammed operative Hamim Mondal, in connection with an espionage network. Singh is accused of communicating with Pakistani handlers via encrypted messages and of involvement in honey-trapping and extortion schemes targeting a state minister. Preliminary investigations suggest the network was also involved in monitoring the movements of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and other state ministers.

The West Bengal Police have arrested Aditya Singh, an alleged associate of Jaish-e-Mohammed operative Hamim Mondal, in connection with an espionage network. Singh is accused of communicating with Pakistani handlers via encrypted messages and of involvement in honey-trapping and extortion schemes targeting a state minister. Preliminary investigations suggest the network was also involved in monitoring the movements of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and other state ministers.

The West Bengal Police have arrested Aditya Singh, an alleged associate of Jaish-e-Mohammed operative Hamim Mondal, in connection with an espionage network. Singh is accused of communicating with Pakistani handlers via encrypted messages and of involvement in honey-trapping and extortion schemes targeting a state minister. Preliminary investigations suggest the network was also involved in monitoring the movements of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and other state ministers.

The West Bengal Police have arrested another person in connection with their investigation into an alleged espionage network. The Special Task Force (STF) arrested Aditya Singh, alias Raju, an alleged associate of Jaish-e-Mohammed operative Hamim Mondal, from Howrah in the early hours of Monday.

Singh will be produced before a court in Burdwan later in the day, where the police are expected to seek his custody.

Investigators have allegedly found that Singh was communicating through encrypted messages with members of the Shahzad Bhatti gang in Pakistan. According to police, Singh came in contact with Mondal, who was arrested on Friday from Purba Bardhaman district, through a gaming application and later met him in person in Howrah.

According to police, Singh was a photographer who would take pictures of West Bengal Minister Umesh Rai and his family and send them via encrypted social media apps to Arpita Sarkar, another accused who was arrested on Friday from Sahibganj in Jharkhand. Sarkar would reportedly use these pictures to threaten Umesh Rai and his son with extortion and abduction. The allegations against Sarkar include honey-trapping and extortion, while she also remained in touch with Pakistani handlers directly. These handlers were from the Shahzad Bhatti gang, which has close ties with ISI. Investigators say that Sarkar had been in touch with Mondol for 3-4 years.

Mondol lived in the New Town area of Kolkata before moving to Howrah, where his father worked in a garment factory. He later moved to Renaissance township in Burdwan from where he was arrested. Police are probing their bank accounts to ascertain whether Mondol, Sarkar and Singh were direct beneficiaries of money sent by handlers for any assignment.

Preliminary investigations have revealed that Mondol and Sarkar were allegedly tasked with tracking the movements of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, identifying security lapses, and exploring possible ways to target him, investigators said. Other ministers in the state were also allegedly under surveillance, while authorities are probing whether any Union ministers were similarly tracked.

Police say the handlers were in touch with Mondol and Sarkar through international numbers belonging to Mexico and California on WhatsApp, apart from using other encrypted social media apps like Instagram, Telegram and X.

The STF has also claimed that Mondol was allegedly instructed by his handlers to expand the network by recruiting more young people. Investigators further alleged that he was tasked with procuring police uniforms to create disruptions during student protests at Jantar Mantar in Delhi, which were allegedly backed by the Cockroach Janata Party (CJP). The protests were later called off after Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan resigned and an agreement was reached on addressing other demands raised by the protesters.