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The sleaze scandal involving a junior commissioned officer, "Naib Subedar" of the Indian Army, Patan Kumar Poddar, 39, and a Pakistani mole, identified as Anushka Agarwal, which was unearthed in Hyderabad this week exposed the presence of a larger spy network from across the borders. Poddar sent vital information about Indian Army movements to Anushka in lieu of money and her nude pictures and videos.
Poddar, now in the custody of the city police, earlier worked in the Indian Military Intelligence in Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan near the Pakistan border. His interaction and dealings with the woman have caused a commotion in the army and all major intelligence wings. The Intelligence Bureau (IB), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Army counter-intelligence want to interrogate him.
The Central Crime Station (CCS), Hyderabad police's special interrogation wing, which completed a round of interrogation with him in the last two days, has sent a note to the Ministry of Home Affairs about the espionage episode. "Yes, we have received requests from the IB and NIA to grill Poddar and the case is under investigation," Hyderabad police commissioner M. Mahender Reddy told this newspaper.
The CCS police gathered interesting information from Poddar during their grilling sessions. They say that Poddar was aware of what he was doing and the consequences of his actions. Though the junior commissioned officer knew that he was committing a serious crime and that he might get caught and punished severely, he couldn't control himself as he was hooked to pornography and money.
Poddar, a self confessed porn addict, first met Anushka through Facebook. Since July 2013, he had received Rs 1 lakh from her in instalments and over two dozen porn photos and nude clips, sources said.
Posted with the Army's 151 MC/MF detachments at Secunderabad Railway Station, Poddar, in turn was spied on by the Army Intelligence since February 2014, as his movements became suspicious over time. He used to spend late night hours in a remote area with his laptop, which he purchased with the money sent by Anushka.
According to Poddar, she introduced herself as a research scholar from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, working with an NGO which keeps tabs on army movements. She told him that her father, also a retired Air Force officer, ran the NGO. Poddar told the CCS sleuths that a large number of other army officers were in touch with Anushka and that "it is a routine for them all to supply such harmless information".
At her specific request, Poddar sent her details of names and ranks of Army officers in Secunderbad Cantonment and their secret code names, locations of around 50 Army movement control offices in the country, the passwords of senior Army officers and their communication sets' frequency, maps of missile control stations and the details of border check posts along Pakistan border.
What stunned the CCS sleuths was the poser by Poddar that anyone with little inside knowledge of Indian Army can access the information he had sent to Anushka. The CCS sleuths subsequently found that Anushka was a fake identity to trick Poddar and that the e-mail id could not be traced within the country. Counter-intelligence is probing whether it could be from across the border.
Poddar was "in 'love' with Anushka" and the two had planned a trip to London, after he sent some more information related to Army establishments in Secunderabad, Srinagar and Jodhpur. She used to deposit money in small amounts, less than Rs 40,000 each time, in his SBI savings account in his native town, Malda in West Bengal.
Two months ago, Poddar installed software which allows her to directly monitor mails from his laptop and pass instructions to him on what to collect and how. Poddar clearly was not convinced by claims that all the information was needed for the working of an NGO, but he was confident that nothing would happen to him, as he was not the only one doing this, sources in the CCS told this paper.
Porn-addict Poddar sold Army secrets to mole
Poddar, now in the custody of the city police, earlier worked in the Indian Military Intelligence in Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan near the Pakistan border. His interaction and dealings with the woman have caused a commotion in the army and all major intelligence wings. The Intelligence Bureau (IB), National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Army counter-intelligence want to interrogate him.
The Central Crime Station (CCS), Hyderabad police's special interrogation wing, which completed a round of interrogation with him in the last two days, has sent a note to the Ministry of Home Affairs about the espionage episode. "Yes, we have received requests from the IB and NIA to grill Poddar and the case is under investigation," Hyderabad police commissioner M. Mahender Reddy told this newspaper.
The CCS police gathered interesting information from Poddar during their grilling sessions. They say that Poddar was aware of what he was doing and the consequences of his actions. Though the junior commissioned officer knew that he was committing a serious crime and that he might get caught and punished severely, he couldn't control himself as he was hooked to pornography and money.
Poddar, a self confessed porn addict, first met Anushka through Facebook. Since July 2013, he had received Rs 1 lakh from her in instalments and over two dozen porn photos and nude clips, sources said.
Posted with the Army's 151 MC/MF detachments at Secunderabad Railway Station, Poddar, in turn was spied on by the Army Intelligence since February 2014, as his movements became suspicious over time. He used to spend late night hours in a remote area with his laptop, which he purchased with the money sent by Anushka.
According to Poddar, she introduced herself as a research scholar from Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, working with an NGO which keeps tabs on army movements. She told him that her father, also a retired Air Force officer, ran the NGO. Poddar told the CCS sleuths that a large number of other army officers were in touch with Anushka and that "it is a routine for them all to supply such harmless information".
At her specific request, Poddar sent her details of names and ranks of Army officers in Secunderbad Cantonment and their secret code names, locations of around 50 Army movement control offices in the country, the passwords of senior Army officers and their communication sets' frequency, maps of missile control stations and the details of border check posts along Pakistan border.
What stunned the CCS sleuths was the poser by Poddar that anyone with little inside knowledge of Indian Army can access the information he had sent to Anushka. The CCS sleuths subsequently found that Anushka was a fake identity to trick Poddar and that the e-mail id could not be traced within the country. Counter-intelligence is probing whether it could be from across the border.
Poddar was "in 'love' with Anushka" and the two had planned a trip to London, after he sent some more information related to Army establishments in Secunderabad, Srinagar and Jodhpur. She used to deposit money in small amounts, less than Rs 40,000 each time, in his SBI savings account in his native town, Malda in West Bengal.
Two months ago, Poddar installed software which allows her to directly monitor mails from his laptop and pass instructions to him on what to collect and how. Poddar clearly was not convinced by claims that all the information was needed for the working of an NGO, but he was confident that nothing would happen to him, as he was not the only one doing this, sources in the CCS told this paper.
Porn-addict Poddar sold Army secrets to mole
