Bihar Man held for leaking confidential security information to Pakistan
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Kolkata: Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police on Friday arrested a man for allegedly passing confidential security information to a Pakistani secret service agency, a senior police officer said on Saturday.
The accused has been identified as Bhakt Banshi Jha (36), a resident of Darbhanga district of Bihar.
"He was found directly involved in activities prejudicial to the safety of the country," the officer said.
"Secret information in the form of photographs, videos, and online chats were found in his mobile phone. These were sent by him to a suspected intelligence operative of Pakistan," he added.
Jha was summoned for questioning at the STF office at the Kolkata Police headquarters in Lal Bazar on Friday evening and was arrested late on Friday night after hours of grilling.
He has been booked under relevant sections of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and the Indian Penal Code.
The Pakistani Intelligence Operative (PIO), with whom Jha used to frequently chat through different social media platforms, has been identified as Aarushi Sharma. He met the PIO on Facebook in October last year while he was employed as a courier delivery person for an international courier firm in Delhi.
He is believed to have taken photographs of vital defence installations and cantonments during his stay in Delhi.
Jha will be presented to a lower court in Kolkata on Saturday and the public prosecutor will seek his police custody.
With inputs from agencies