At least 75 Indian Army servicemen stationed in Jammu and Kashmir and Mathura were contacted by Pakistani ISI handlers agents using Indian SIM cards that were smuggled out by a Nepali national, reported The Indian Express. The agents primarily communicated with the soldiers via WhatsApp, according to information obtained by central intelligence agencies.
A senior official stated, “After identifying the details (of the Army personnel), we are likely to inform their unit heads and summon them for questioning in the coming days. As of now, we do not have any substantial evidence proving their involvement in any espionage activity. But operatives based in different Pakistani cities were in touch with them.”
The purported connection was discovered after a technical analysis of information found on at least 16 Indian SIM cards taken from a man. He was identified as Prabhat Kumar Chaurasiya, a resident of Birgunj in Nepal. A team from the Delhi Police Special Cell (Eastern Range) from Laxmi Nagar in Delhi nabbed him on 28th August.
According to sources, it was discovered during the investigation that Chaurasiya utilized his Aadhaar credentials to obtain SIM cards from Bihar and Maharashtra. The majority of these cards were registered in the Latur region of Maharashtra.
Sources informed, “After smuggling these cards from India to Kathmandu, he handed them over to his ISI handlers. They later created WhatsApp accounts with these numbers and began luring personnel in the Indian Army, paramilitary forces and Government departments to further their espionage objectives.”
Amit Kaushik, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP-Special Cell), “Out of the 16 SIM cards, 11 were being operated on WhatsApp from Lahore, Bahawalpur and other parts of Pakistan by ISI operatives. The investigation has revealed that Chaurasiya came into contact with ISI handlers in 2024 through a Nepali intermediary. He was lured with the promise of a US visa and opportunities in journalism abroad. In return, he was tasked with supplying Indian SIM cards and gathering information related to the DRDO and Army establishments.”
According to the sources, Chaurasiya has a bachelor’s degree in information technology along with a diploma in computer hardware and networking. He was employed in the pharmaceutical industry in Pune, Latur, Solapur and Delhi.
The sources unveiled that he founded a logistics business in Kathmandu in 2017, but it failed because of financial losses. He appeared to get in touch with handlers of the military intelligence agency of Pakistan, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) following this blow.
The arrest of Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) Assistant Sub-Inspector Moti Ram Jat in Delhi on 27th May for disclosing classified material to a Pakistani Intelligence Operative (PIO) by central authorities followed a similar pattern. It turned out that his ISI handler was in communication with fifteen additional phone numbers associated with members of the Indian Army, paramilitary groups and government agencies.
