Espionage case on Army officer’s wife, lens on ‘China links’

JAMMU: J&K Police have filed a case and started a probe against a Jammu-based Army officer’s wife for allegedly collecting and sharing sensitive information with foreign intelligence operatives, including those linked to China, sources said Sunday. The woman is from Telangana, works as a freelance researcher and had a UN internship in 2023. She allegedly used AI tools ChatGPT and Claude to write papers on sensitive security issues for Chinese intelligence operatives suspected to have contacted her posing as academicians. The information was allegedly passed on through encrypted communication (online) mediums. The woman married the major-rank officer in 2023, a year after finishing a course in international governance from Geneva. She got a Master’s degree from a Bengaluru university in 2021. A joint team of officers, including some from a central intelligence agency, intercepted the woman at Jammu railway station on Oct 14 when she was reportedly preparing to board a train to Pathankot. She was stopped and taken to a nearby military station for questioning, officials said. This followed a case filed at Jammu’s Gandhi Nagar Police Station under Official Secrets Act, and BNS sections relating to criminal conspiracy and offences against national sovereignty. A DSP assigned to lead the probe has questioned the woman, seizing her phone and extracting data that purportedly showed documents on sensitive subjects. The accused claimed her material was based entirely on open-source research supplemented by the AI platforms. The officials made it clear that despite being booked, the woman has not been arrested yet. Her interrogation indicated that she had interacted with several foreign nationals during her UN internship, including a Chinese national with whom she allegedly maintained contact through WhatsApp, the officials said. In 2024, she was in contact via social media with a Malaysian consultant allegedly working for Chinese intelligence agencies, the officials added. Preliminary investigations indicate the Chinese operatives initially made the woman write articles on environmental and geopolitics issues before gradually goading her to switch to defence matters. Investigators suspect she may have fallen into an “intellectual trap”, not realising that those approaching her as academicians were actually operatives trying to extract sensitive information.

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Investigators are examining whether the woman engaged in systematic information-sharing under the guise of freelance research, adding a comprehensive forensic examination of her digital devices and financial transactions is on to establish the exact nature of the shared material, the officials said. (With inputs from agencies)

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