The arrest of a young couple in Delhi on Friday has put the spotlight back on espionage rackets run by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in India.
A serving Indian Air Force (IAF) Wing Commander, arrested in May, has been accused of leaking sensitive information to Pakistani agents after being honeytrapped. The IAF official is also accused of installing data-stealing software on a colleague’s mobile phone. He had access to sensitive embassy documents.
Kurulkar, 62, was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) on May 3, 2023. By the end of June that year, officials had prepared an 1,837-page chargesheet over his alleged exchanges with the operative. Just a year later, in early 2024, Satendra Siwal, an India-based Security Assistant (IBSA) at the Indian Embassy in Moscow since 2021, was arrested for alleged spying after being honeytrapped.
One nude for one page of combat plan—that was what the person he was chatting with promised, according to officials privy to the probe.
