Indian Army officer booked under OSA over Pakistan ties

Hyderabad: The city Police Commissioner’s Task Force (North) on Wednesday arrested an Army officer on the charges of espionage activities. Disclosing this to the media, city police commissioner Mahender Reddy said Patan Kumar Poddar, Naik Subedar of EME unit, Secunderabad, presently attached to 151 MC/ME Department was involved in espionage activities in violation of the provisions of the Official Secret Act.

Investigations showed that the officer was contacted by a Pakistani national through social media with a fake name, Anuska Agarwal. She sought to find out from the Army officer the locations of the Army bases in the country. She was found to have been in contact with him through mobile phone, social networking sites like Facebook and also through e-mail, Mahender Reddy said.

Patan also shared information regarding deployment of some defence units and spoke to a number of personnel at various locations and gathered information regarding the location of Artillery Regiments, etc. Apart from it, the Army officer was involved in marketing business for company name “Secured Life.” He persuaded his colleagues to join the schemes floated by the company. The schemes related to money circulation, the police said.