ISIS man' held for blackmailing colonel

New Delhi: The Delhi police has arrested a man, suspected to have links with Pakistan spy agency ISI, from north Delhi’s Chandni Mahal for blackmailing an Indian Army officer for sensitive defence-related information. The police is also on a lookout for three of his alleged accomplices, who are on the run.

The accused has been identified as Mohammed Pervez and is suspected to have links with Pakistan spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The Army officer, a resident of southwest Delhi’s Dwarka, had alleged that she was getting threat calls from two unknown numbers and obscene morphed photos of herfrom a Facebook profile called Ikta Sharma. She alleged that she was warned that the pictures and her personal information would be released on social media if she did not leak critical defence information. 

When she blocked the two numbers, the woman colonel’s daughter started receiving morphed pictures and messages from the Facebook profile of a woman, they said. The accused tried to blackmail her too. A woman colonel filed a police complaint in Dwarka, alleging that she had been receiving morphed and obscene pictures through WhatsApp from two unknown numbers.

These pictures, she purportedly said, were morphed and that she was threatened that if she did not entertain and tries to disconnect, her pictures would be uploaded on Internet. Even when she stopped receiving calls, they allegedly contacted her daughter.

On the basis of the information gained through the Facebook profile and the records of the two numbers, Parvez Mohammed, who is in his early 30s, was arrested on September 13 by the local police.

The probe revealed that many more senior rank Army personnel had been sent request from this Facebook profile to lure them.

Following the complaint, technical surveillance taken up and the Delhi police’s special cell zeroed in on the accused, who was arrested following a raid in north Delhi’s Chandni Mahal area on Monday.

Parvez purportedly admitted that he is an ISI agent and had been tasked with gathering confidential information about India’s strategic defence deployment from the colonel. The accused is also suspected to have already supplied some secret information pertaining to country’s security to the Pakistani agency, the officer said.

During his interrogation, it emerged that he had visited Pakistan and had made SIM cards available to some Pakistani nationals. It was suspected that he is linked with the ISI, the police said.

A case under section 123 of the Indian Penal Code which criminalises concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war and relevant provisions of IT Act has been registered. He has also been charged with violation of privacy, stalking, criminal intimidation and for using word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.