The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has filed supplimentry charge-sheet against Mumbai resident Amaan Salim Sheikh (23), a key accused in an alleged conspiracy by Pakistani intelligence operatives to honeytrap Indian Navy personnel to gather secret information on defence establishments. The supplementary chargesheet was filed on Thursday in the NIA Special Court, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.
Amaan Salim Sheikh, a resident of Kurla, Mumbai, is charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. He was apprehended by the NIA in November 2023 from his residence in Kurla.
The NIA's investigation revealed that Kurla-based delivery boy Amaan Sheikh was actively collaborating with a suspected Pakistani agent known as Usman. Additionally, Sheikh was also receiving funds from other suspected Pakistani operatives, including Meer Balaj Khan and Alven, through cryptocurrency channels to carry out tasks assigned by the Pakistani intelligence operatives.
During the investigation, the NIA found that Sheikh visited Pakistan in 2017-18 before COVID-19 to meet his relatives, where he met PIO Usman and started working for him. Apart from Usman, he was in touch with several other PIO agents. On Usman's instructions, he arranged a few fake document-based SIM cards and activated them, which were being used by Pakistani intelligence officers (PIO). NIA teams seized two mobile phones from Sheikh's Kurla residence during the search last year, in which sensitive documents were found.
According to sources, during the investigation, it was revealed that Pakistani agents had honey-trapped Indian Navy officers in Visakhapatnam. Shaikh played a key role in this operation and was in touch with escort service, planning to send these escorts to Navy officers in Visakhapatnam who were involved in espionage operations and share sensitive vital information linked to defense with Pakistani handlers.
On July 19, 2023, the NIA had filed a chargesheet against two accused, including an absconding Pakistani national, Meer Balaj Khan. According to the NIA chargesheet, arrested accused Aakash Solanki, who was working as an Electrical Artificer Radio Apprentice (EAC) at the Naval Dockyard, Visakhapatnam, was passing on classified information relating to Indian Navy warships and submarines. He was sharing the information with a suspected Pakistani intelligence operative, operating under the assumed identity of ‘Aditi Chouhan’, as well as other unidentified individuals.
NIA investigations had further revealed that Aakash Solanki had been receiving monetary compensation from the absconding accused and Pakistani operative Meer Balaj Khan through crypto channels in exchange for the information.
On November 6, 2023, the NIA had filed a supplementary chargesheet against two other accused persons, identified as Manmohan Surendra Panda and Alven in the same case. While Panda is under arrest, Alven, a Pakistani Intelligence Operative, is absconding, as he is based in Pakistan.
