Five defence officials were honey-trapped by the foreign intelligence operatives in the period between 2015 and 2017

Army intelligence has issued an advisory to its personnel against a suspected enemy spy, believed to be targeting officers and Special Forces’ troops through an Instagram profile ‘Oyesomya’, news agency ANI has reported.

The Army has reportedly cited a now-defunct Instagram profile along with the picture of the suspect spy and asked army personnel to remain alert as it could be a possible enemy spy.

There have been several instances of honey-trapping of defence personnel. As many as five defence officials were honey-trapped by the foreign intelligence operatives in the period between 2015 and 2017, Minister of State (MoS) for Defence Subhash Bhamre had informed Rajya Sabha in February.

As per the information provided by the minister, three personnel including two from India Army and one from the Indian Air Force (IAF) were apprehended in 2015 whereas two more Army personnel were arrested in 2017 in similar cases.

Another jawan was arrested by the Army intelligence in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan after he was found to be in touch with a Facebook profile of a Pakistani spy who was drawing information from him in exchange of money.

The jawan, identified as Sombir, belongs to Haryana and was posted in the Armoured Corps of the Indian Army. Sources in the Army told ANI that the jawan was in touch with a suspected ISI spy using the profile name of ‘Anika Chopra’ on Facebook, was chatting regularly on the platform and exchanging details and information about the jawan’s armoured unit and its movement.

A BrahMos employee was also arrested for the same charges last year at the Nagpur plant of the missile firm.