NEW DELHI, JAIPUR, June 26 — In a major breach of national security, a Navy staffer posted at the naval headquarters in Delhi was arrested in Jaipur for allegedly leaking sensitive defence information to a Pakistani handler posing as an Indian woman, officials said Thursday.
Vishal Yadav, an upper division clerk in the Directorate of Dockyard at the Navy building, is accused of passing on classified material, including details related to Operation Sindoor — retaliatory military strikes carried out by Indian forces in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir following the recent Pahalgam terror attack.
Inspector General of Police (CID-Security) Vishnu Kant Gupta confirmed that Yadav, a resident of Punsika village in Rewari, Haryana, received nearly ₹2 lakh in return for the leaked intelligence, including ₹50,000 specifically for the Operation Sindoor disclosures. “Some of the payments were made in cryptocurrency,” Gupta added.
The arrest was made after intelligence agencies, while probing an older espionage case, stumbled upon a lead that connected to Yadav. “We kept him under tight surveillance. Once we gathered sufficient evidence — including sensitive documents found on his mobile phone — he was taken into custody in Jaipur,” said special public prosecutor Sudesh Satwan.
According to police, Yadav was initially approached on Facebook by a woman using the alias “Priya Sharma,” who later moved their conversation to encrypted messaging platforms like WhatsApp and Telegram. Investigators said the woman was in fact a Pakistani intelligence operative.
Yadav allegedly began by leaking lower-grade information in exchange for small payments of ₹5,000–6,000. Over time, under the lure of larger sums, he escalated to sharing high-level defence data.
“He was lured by money and ended up leaking sensitive information from the Navy headquarters,” said IGP Gupta. “Our team monitored his online activity for weeks. He was detained for joint interrogation by multiple national agencies.”
Officials said a forensic analysis of Yadav’s phone revealed incriminating evidence — including encrypted chats, financial records, and classified documents — indicating an ongoing relationship with Pakistani intelligence handlers.
Sources also revealed that Yadav was addicted to online gaming, a vulnerability that may have been exploited during the honeytrap.
Yadav was produced before a court in Jaipur and has been remanded to police custody until June 30. Authorities are now examining the full extent of the leak and probing cryptocurrency trails connected to the case.
“This arrest is a result of sustained monitoring and timely action. We remain vigilant against these evolving tactics used by hostile intelligence services,” Gupta said.
