Kangra youth held after ‘sensitive' content related to country's security found in his phone
A 20-year-old college dropout was arrested in Kangra district on suspicion of spying after sensitive content which could endanger sovereignty, unity and integrity of the country was allegedly found on his phone, police said on Thursday.
The accused have been identified as Abhishek Bhardwaj, of Sukahar in Dehra sub division of Himachal Pradesh's Kangra district.
Acting on intelligence, the police was monitoring Abhishek's activities from the past few days, before they arrested him from his house on Wednesday. A special team was formed under the sub-divisional police officer, Dadaseeba. It had been monitoring the suspect for several days, collecting intelligence and keeping a watch.
He was interrogated at the Dehra police station and booked under Section 152 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
Police officials did not confirm of finding any concrete evidence of his direct involvement in spying acts so far, however, preliminary investigations have revealed that he was in contact with a few Pakistani individuals through social media.
Dehra superintendent of police (SP) Mayank Chaudhary said: 'After we got an input about Abhishek's activities, we kept him under close surveillance. We have found sensitive videos and photos on his mobile phone, which has been seized and sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) for further analysis.'
He was presented in the court on Thursday and was sent to 5-day police remand.
This is the first such arrest in Himachal Pradesh as part of a larger crackdown on espionage networks after Operation Sindoor, launched by India on May 7 in response to an April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam that killed 26 people. Since then, at least seven suspects have been arrested in Punjab and Haryana for alleged spying activities for Pakistan.
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