Operation: Desert Chase; The Spy in the Desert

An anti-espionage operation was recently carried out by the Military Intelligence (MI) of army (Lucknow). The operation was named “Desert Chase” since it was carried out in the desert state of Rajasthan. The joint team of MI, Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) and Rajasthan Police orchestrated arrests on 8. Accused were 2 civil defence employees, who were selling the information to the Pakistani Intelligence. Accused Vikas Kumar was a contractual employee who was operating in the Army Ammunition Depot near Sriganganagar, Rajasthan. Vikas was getting information via another civil defence employee named Chiman Lal, accuse number 2. Chiman Lal was working in the Mahajan Field Firing Range (MFFR), Bikaner, Rajasthan, a crucial site where major military exercises take place throughout the year.

 

Vikas was lured by a Pakistani intelligence operative using fake facebook account named ‘Anoshka Chopra’, who exchanged contact numbers with Vikas and frequently texted. As per Vikas, the so called ‘Anoshka’, claimed to be an Army official and told him that she was operating in a different division of Army. Anoshka then introduced Vikas to another man, who is supposed to be the senior handler of Pakistani Intelligence. He added Vikas to several Whatsapp groups. Vikas was promised some amount of money for every piece of information that he can provide to the handlers. According to reports, Vikas initially admitted that many truncations, a total sum of about 75000 INR, were made by the handler via multiple accounts and he received the money in his and his brother’s bank account.

 

MI got an intel in July-August 2019 regarding a mole delivering wide range of data to the other side of the border. MI acted quickly and started investigation as early as August 2019. Vikas was under the radar and his trails led to the accuse number 2, Chiman Lal, who supplied info from MFFR, Bikaner.

Both of them were arrested on June 8^th, nearly after a yearlong operation. Arrest was made under the Official Secrets Act 1923. Click here to understand this act.

 

Intel compromised:-

• Details of ammunition at the depot, this includes types of and the quantity of the weapons.
• ORBAT (Order of Battle)
• Photos of arms & ammunitions, tanks and other vehicles available at MFFR.
• Personal details regarding Senior Army officials, such as personalities, common activities and other crucial information.

ORBAT: It stands for Order of Battle. These are highly confidential military documents that contain information regarding the high level strategies and formations that the military employ during the wars. Leakage of these sensitive plans can led to major problems directly on the battlefields.

 

Why this incident is note-worthy?

Acts of espionage and intel gathering are neither new, nor uncommon. Spying may look like a WW2 kind of tactic, but it is still practiced very actively. The main thing that makes this incident more threatening is the fact that both the culprits were of Indian nationality. Moreover, the location where all this took place couldn’t be of more importance. Both, MFFR, Bikaner and Army Ammunition Depot, Sriganganagar are crucial to Army due to the close proximity of border. This kind of breach is super-threatening. The responsible authorities (Military Intelligence) timely outwitted the perpetrators and unearthed this whole act of treason. These kinds of operations remind us how capable our Security agencies are.

Hope you learned something new..

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