Army veteran among two arrested in Assam over alleged defence leaks to Pakistan

New Delhi: Assam Police have arrested two people, including a retired Indian Army soldier working with the Army on contract, for allegedly passing information about military movements to Pakistani intelligence contacts. The arrests, announced by the chief minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, on Sunday, followed intelligence inputs from central agencies, with preliminary inquiries suggesting that the accused may have been honeytrapped.

Speaking at a news conference, Sarma said the suspects were allegedly communicating with contacts in Pakistan and supplying information about Army movements. He said they would be handed over to central agencies, although he did not identify the agencies or provide details of the material allegedly shared.

An earlier police statement identified one of those arrested as Abhishek Kumar Singh, 31, a resident of Purba Champaran district in Bihar who was living in Guwahati. The publicly available accounts did not name the second suspect or establish whether Singh was the retired soldier mentioned by Sarma.

Singh was apprehended from a rented house in Gandhinagar, within the jurisdiction of Satgaon police station, during an operation on the night of Saturday and the early hours of Sunday. According to the police statement of the operation, officers seized a mobile phone, SIM cards and documents they described as incriminating.

The investigation began with information supplied by Military Intelligence associated with the Tezpur-based Gajraj Corps. Assam’s special task force (STF), working with Sonitpur police, developed that intelligence before carrying out the raid in Guwahati.

Police alleged that Singh had acted under the instructions of a Pakistani intelligence operative and passed secret information concerning security forces. A case was registered at the STF police station, but the reports reviewed did not specify the legal provisions invoked or disclose the contents of the seized documents.

The Assam arrests came within the same two-day period as a similar alleged Pakistan-linked honeytrap case involving an Indian Navy sailor, Pradeep Mukherjee, 31, who was arrested at INS Agrani in Coimbatore on Saturday. Andhra Pradesh Police’s counter-intelligence cell alleged that a woman linked to Pakistani intelligence had cultivated an online relationship with him to obtain sensitive naval information; the available reports establish similarities in the alleged method, but no operational connection between the two investigations.

Mukherjee, a West Bengal native who joined the Navy in 2014, was posted with the Eastern Naval Command in Visakhapatnam and was attending a management development course in Coimbatore. Officials told the New Indian Express that investigators had detected suspicious digital activity and placed him under surveillance before his arrest.

Both investigations concern suspected attempts to obtain military information through personal contact, although the Assam account provides fewer details about how the alleged approach occurred. Sarma’s reference to honey-trapping remains a preliminary assessment, while police have said further investigation into Singh’s alleged activities is continuing.