Air Force Captain Caught Trading Government Secrets for 'Nude Pics'
Arrested on espionage charges after being led into 'honey trap'
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An Air Force captain has been arrested on espionage charges after he was caught trading government secrets for "nude pics."
The high-ranking officer was caught this week after he was lured into a "honey trap" by two women online.
The "women" that he thought he was exchanging intimate photos with, were actually undercover agents.
51-year-old IAF Group Captain Arun Marwaha had given up top-secret documents in exchange for sexually explicit images from Pakistani agents disguised as the women he thought he was interacting with.
Marwaha is a parachute training instructor with more than three thousand jumps to his name.
He was due to retire next year but now faces up to 14 years in jail after being arrested for allegedly passing on classified information by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police.
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“He was arrested on Wednesday after a case was registered against him under the Official Secrets Act,” said the Special Cell’s special commissioner MM Oberoi.
Marwaha shared secret information and documents from the IAF headquarters in Delhi with two agents of the Pakistani ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) posing as women on Facebook, Indian news outlets reported, citing a police source close to the investigation.
It is claimed that under the names Kiran Randhawa and Mahima Patel, the agents earned his trust and exchanged intimate photos and messages over Facebook and WhatsApp before getting him to send them pictures of classified documents in exchange for more photos.
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This type of tactic is known as a “honey trap,” in which romantic and/or sexual liaisons are used to manipulate or coerce information out of an enemy.
After the security breach was uncovered by a senior officer an internal investigation was launched, leading to Marwaha being questioned and detained by the Air Force’s own counter-intelligence wing before the case was handed over to the police.
The Group Captain is now being held at the Special Cell’s headquarters in New Delhi while investigators are going through his phone.
The IAF has not commented on the arrest but officials said Marwaha was engaging in certain “unwanted activities” through “unauthorized electronic devices,” NDTV reported.
The Pakistani intelligence agency, the ISI, has been accused of being involved in a number of high-profile operations inside its geopolitical rival India, including the 1993 Mumbai bombings which killed 257 people with the help of the local underworld.
