ALLAHABAD: A day after
Army’s counter-intelligence (CI) wing and
Military Intelligence (MI) carried out searches at the official premises of a Lieutenant Colonel posted at a base workshop in
Jabalpur,
Madhya Pradesh, on suspicion of leak of official data, the ministry of defence on Thursday clarified that the officer has not been arrested and is performing his regular duties at his unit.
“A preliminary enquiry was ordered on February 12 by the Army to ascertain the facts on suspected leakage of classified information from IT devices of a Lieutenant Colonel posted in Army Base Workshop at Jabalpur.
It is yet to be established whether it has happened inadvertently or a deliberately as reported,” a press release issued by PRO, MoD, Wing Commander
Arvind Sinha, said on Thursday.
The statement further clarified that “the officer has not been arrested and is performing regular duties at his unit”.
“The officer has only been questioned as part of the ongoing enquiry and nothing else and, therefore, he continues to perform his routine duties in the unit. Evidence related to the case, including digital, has been seized and sent for further forensic analysis,” the release added.
The MoD categorically stated that reports like ‘honey-trapping’ or or ‘spear phishing’ by Pakistan’s
ISI, etc., were far from being accurate. “Reports of detention of the officer, ‘honey-trapping’ and money exchange at this stage are pure speculation and neither accurate nor substantiated,” said the release, adding that details on the outcome of the enquiry will be intimated in due course as per progress.
Spear phishing is a targeted e-mail-spoofing attack, different from phishing for financial gain, and is solely aimed at unauthorized access to sensitive information.
The Sub-Area Headquarters, located at New Cantt in Allahabad, has its jurisdiction over army establishment of UP East and the entire Madhya Pradesh, including the unit where the officer is posted.
Last week, an IAF officer was arrested on charges of leaking classified details and documents of Indian operations to Pakistan. Investigation revealed that it took seven months for ISI to honeytrap the IAF officer.