[Reader-list] Army Major caught spying for Pak

[Javed]

This is really embarrasing after Ms. Gupta's disaster in Pakistan.
-----

Army Major caught spying for Pak, tip-off came from US

New Delhi: Around the time last month when the Ministry of External
Affairs (MEA) was alerted about the possibility of one of their
officers being involved in espionage, another sensitive
counter-intelligence operation involving the Ministry of Defence (MoD)
was in progress.

For over two weeks now, top Government sources say, an Army Major has
been kept in "safe custody" of the Military Intelligence (MI). The
officer -- posted in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands -- is alleged to
have passed on classified information to Pakistan.

The first tip-off in what could develop into another espionage
scandal, according to sources, came from American authorities.
Suspicious internet traffic first came to the notice of American
intelligence agencies when intercepts showed a user in Andaman and
Nicobar Islands had dispatched a picture of a serving Indian
Brigadier, who was attending a training programme in the US, to
Pakistan.

Indian agencies quickly zeroed in on the officer and a quiet operation
was planned to call him to New Delhi. Sources say the officer pleaded
ignorance of the traffic from his computer to Pakistan saying it could
have been generated by some virus or unknown software.

However, suspicion persisted since the Major's computer had been
recently formatted and cleaned of all contents. An early forensic
examination done in New Delhi revealed the dispatch of classsified
military information, some of which should not have been in the
officer's possession. The hard disk of the officer's computer has
since been sent by military authorities to a Hyderabad laboratory for
accessing the erased contents.

"I do not have any information yet. I will have to find the details
and then can get back to you," Army spokesperson Col S Om Singh said
when contacted for a reaction.

Both Defence Minister A.K. Antony and Home Minister P. Chidambaram are
learnt to be aware of the developments in the case, given the serious
implications involved.

Source: Indian Express