Group Captain Arun Marwaha, appointed as the joint director (operations) with IAF, used a hi-tech chat site “Hookup” to communicate and share classified information with ISI on various air exercises, including planning and training of para operations, a Delhi Police charge sheet accessed by Mail Today shows.
The chats on this site get deleted automatically once one logs out from the account. Moreover, a single common password is shared to login. Using this site, Marwaha allegedly shared the details of Human Aid in Disaster Relief (HADR) exercises scheduled in March 2018. It was a tri-nation exercise involving India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and a para drop exercise in Trivandrum.
He is also accused of sharing information on other operations like Gagan Shakti, para refresher training, basic CFF course, information regarding flypast on January 26 and beating retreat. He also supplied information on the use of radar to track the aircraft, the charge sheet says. According to the charges, on December 20 last year, Marwaha received a friend request from an account named Kiran Randhawa. Finding a former colleague as a mutual friend on her account, he accepted the friend request. Two weeks later, he received a request from another account named Mahima Patel.
The Indian Air Force official was lured into explicit sex chats in exchange of secret information. He began chatting on the Facebook IDs when he was in Trivandrum for official work. During the investigation, the IP addresses were traced to Rawalpindi and Islamabad in Pakistan. He even activated WhatsApp on their phones using his number.
Marwaha was in touch with the two ISI operatives till the day of his arrest. Finding him regularly carrying smartphones at the Air Force headquarters, Marwaha was detained by Army intelligence on February 1 after they detected his conversation, and he was handed over to Delhi Police for questioning.
According to police, Marwaha was very active on social media, especially Facebook. Posting photographs and videos of his work in IAF and family gatherings was routine for Marwaha.
Sources say after being digitally honey-trapped, three months back, Marwaha was blackmailed. He was told that his chats will be made public if he does not meet their demands. Instead of informing authorities, he succumbed to the demands.
The police recently filed charge sheet in a Delhi court which would be taken up for consideration later in the month.
With rising cases of its officers getting honey-trapped, the intelligence agencies have previously issued warnings to the forces asking them to spread awareness among their men against such attempts by enemy operatives.
Along with keeping a close eye on internet habits of officials in defence forces, those visiting porn sites or looking to form friendship with women on social media are being monitored closely.