Three persons were arrested from Nayagarh and Jajpur districts by the Special Task Force (STF) of the Odisha Police on Sunday. They are accused of procuring numerous pre-activated SIM cards and selling one-time passwords (OTP) generated from this Sims with several clients including some from Pakistani intelligence operatives.
J.N Pankaj IG, STF said "The OTPs shared by these individuals were used to create various accounts/channels on social media platforms and on online shopping sites as well. These are also used in opening email accounts. Since mobile numbers from India are used for such purposes, people will think that these accounts are owned by an Indian but actually operated from Pakistan,”.
He further added "These social media platforms will be used in various kinds of anti-India activities such as spying, communication with terrorists, radicalisation, running anti-India propaganda, fuelling anti-India/divisive sentiments on social media, sextortion and honey-trapping. As these accounts are registered/linked on an Indian mobile number, people find it trustworthy. The accounts opened on online shopping platforms are also used to supply items to terrorists and anti-India elements".
The arrested accused are namely Saroj Kumar Nayak, 26, and Soumya Pattanaik, 19 and Pathanisamant Lenka, 35, who works as a teacher in an Industrial Training Institute (ITI), According to STF sources one of the arrested individuals was associated with a female Patna based PIO agent who was arrested last year in an Official Secrets Act/honeytrap case.
The STF also conducted a raid of the accused and seized criminal materials including 19 mobile phones, 47 pre-activated SIM cards and covers, 61 ATM cards and laptops from their possession. However the accused failed to provide any satisfactory justification regarding their criminal offence.