Bhubaneswar: The Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Police nabbed three persons including an ITI teacher from Nayagarh for allegedly procuring pre-activated SIMs and sharing OTPs with Pakistani intelligence operatives.
The accused have been identified as Pathanisamant Lenka (35), a resident of Badapandusar under Itamati PS in Nayagarh district; Saroj Kumar Nayak, an ITI teacher from Dasapalla area in Nayagarh district; Soumya Pattanaik from Sujanpur area in Jajpur district.
Acting on intelligence inputs regarding OTP sharing with some criminals and anti-national elements, the STF conducted a raid and nabbed three accused.
The STF also recovered 19 phones, 47 SIMs, and 61 ATM cards from their possession.
The accused were fraudulently procuring huge numbers of SIM cards in others’ names and selling the OTPs (linked/generated using the SIMs) to various clients, including some Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIO)/ISI agents in Pakistan as well as in India. In return, they would be paid by Pakistani agents based in India.
The accused were allegedly also in touch with a female PIO agent who was arrested last year in an Official Secrets Act/honey-trap case in Rajasthan, the STF said.
These OTPs were then used to create various accounts/channels on social media like WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, etc., and online shopping sites like Amazon and Flipkart, etc. The OTPs were also used in opening email accounts. Though these accounts are of Indian origin, they are actually operated from Pakistan, the STF added.
Accounts created on social media platforms using the SIM cards will be used in various kinds of anti-India activities like spying, communication with terrorists, radicalisation, running anti-India propaganda, fuelling anti-India/divisive sentiments on social media, sextortion, honey-trapping, etc, it added.
Besides, the accounts were also used for creating and selling mule accounts through social media groups which are again used in various kinds of crimes., the STF further stated.
Comments are closed.