3 from Odisha arrested for sharing OTPs with ISI agents of Pakistani

Bhubaneswar: STF of Odisha Police arrested 3 persons including an ITI teacher from Nayagarh on charges of procuring pre-activated SIMs and sharing OTPs with Pakistani intelligence operatives.

The accused are ITI teacher Pathanisamanta Lenka, Saroj Kumar Nayak and Soumya Patnaik.

STF officials have recovered 19 phones, 47 SIMs, and 61 ATM cards from their possession.

As per reports, they were fraudulently procuring huge numbers of SIMs in other’s name and selling the OTPs (linked/generated using the SIMs) to various clients including some Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIO)/ ISI agents in Pakistan as well as in India. In return they would be paid by some Pakistani agents based in India.

They were also in the touch with a female PIO agent who was arrested last year in an Official secrets Act/ Honey-Trap case in Rajsthan.

These OTPs were then used to create various accounts/ Channels on social media like Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram etc. and also on online shopping site like Amazon, Flipkart etc. These are also used in opening email accounts. People will think that these accounts are owned by an Indian but actually operated from Pakistan.

These social media platform than will be used in various kinds of Anti-India activities like Spying, communication with terrorists, radicalization, running anti-India propaganda, fuelling anti-India/ divisive sentiments on social media, sextortion, Honey-trapping etc. As these accounts are registered/linked on an Indian mobile numbers people find it trustworthy.

The accounts opened on online shopping platforms are also used to supply items to terrorists, anti-India elements etc.

Apart from these they were also in business of creating and selling mule accounts through social media groups which are again used in various kinds of crimes.