Two Ajnala Men Arrested For Spying On Bathinda Military Station
Hindustan Times
The Bathinda police and the counter-intelligence wing busted an espionage network by arresting two Ajnala residents accused of monitoring army movements for foreign handlers. Superintendent of police, city, Narinder Singh said on Monday that the accused, Ashok
Singh and Akashdeep Singh of Sarai village in Ajnala sub division of Amritsar district, allegedly installed a solar-powered CCTV camera on a pole along the Bathinda-Fazilka stretch of national highway No. 7 to stream live video feeds to unidentified individuals in Pakistan and Canada.
A case under the Official Secrets Act and the Prevention of Public Property Act was registered on June 9 following a targeted scan of the area near a local cement factory.
Ashok, who procured the hardware and SIM card, was arrested on June 10, while Akashdeep, who helped mount the camera, was apprehended on Sunday.
The security breach directly targets the Bathinda military station, one of the country’s largest military bases and the headquarters of the army’s 10 Corps, or Chetak Corps.
Investigation shows the camera had been operational since March, tracking both military and police movements.
Police revealed the suspects were paid for the operation and are currently tracking down a third accomplice whose identity remains confidential.
Investigators are expanding their search to Kapurthala in Punjab and Hanumangarh in Rajasthan, where the trio recently travelled, to determine if similar surveillance equipment has been deployed near other strategic defence installations.