Cops Trace 4 FB Accounts Of Woman Handler In DRDO Espionage Case
(This was originally posted in Hindustan Times by Debabrata Mohanty)
Four of the seven Facebook accounts used by a suspected woman handler in the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) espionage case were being operated from Pakistan, a senior official of Odisha criminal investigation department (CID) said on Wednesday. The woman, who was in touch with the five men arrested last month through social media accounts such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, had at least four Facebook accounts operating from Pakistan. Three accounts were being operated from Islamabad and one from Rawalpindi, said CID additional director general Sanjeeb Panda.
The officer said investigators had been able to trace back the accounts to Pakistan, adding that she used proxy IPs (Internet Protocol) of the US, India, and Germany. Some of the accounts are currently active and she is still chatting with some people, he added. The suspected Pakistani agent had 7 Facebook accounts under different names and was in contact with the five accused. She even had proposed to two accused. The woman had been using a UK phone number and chatted with the accused to get “valuable information” on missiles test-fired at DRDO’s testing range facility in the Chandipur area of Balasore district.
Last month, five people, Basanta Behera, Hemanta Kumar Mistry, Tapas Ranjan Nayak, SK Musafir and Sachin Kumar, were arrested by police in Balasore district. Panda said the investigation is underway to get details of the UK phone number and the bank account in Dubai, from where one of the accused received a cash transfer of around ₹38,000. He said efforts are underway to know if the accused received more money from any other source.
The CID has sought technical data from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team under the Union ministry of electronics and information technology. The CID is yet to identify the woman but has found her videos and photographs.
