Bhubaneswar: Special Task Force (STF) of Odisha Police arrested three persons in the state for illicit sharing of one-time passwords (OTPs) to some criminals and anti-India elements, a press notification released by STF said Sunday.
The three accused persons were identified as Pathanisamant Lenka (35), who is an ITI teacher; Saroj Kumar Nayak (26), both hail from Nayagarh district and Soumya Pattanaik (19), a resident of Jajpur district.
Based on intelligence inputs regarding the OTP sharing racket, STF conducted raids on the residences of the accused. STF sleuths seized various incriminating materials such as mobile phones, pre-activated SIM Cards, and laptops from their possession during the searches.
As many as 19 expensive mobile phones (including iPhones), 47 SIM Cards, 61 ATM cards and 23 SIM covers were seized from the suspects.
However, the accused persons could not give any satisfactory answer regarding sharing of OTPs and other information shared with foreign nationals. Afterwards, STF arrested and produced them in the SDJM court, Bhubaneswar May 13, 2023, the notification informed.
According to the press note, the suspects used to fraudulently procure huge numbers of SIMs in others’ names and allegedly sold the OTPs (linked/generated using the SIMs) to various clients including some Pakistani Intelligence Operatives (PIO) or ISI agents in Pakistan as well as in India. In return, they used to get paid by some Pakistani agents based in India. They were also in touch with a female PIO agent who was arrested last year in Official Secrets Act and honeytrap case in Rajasthan.
These OTPs were then used to create various accounts or channels on social media like Whatsapp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and online shopping sites such as Amazon, Flipkart, etc. These were also used in opening email accounts.
People falsely believed that these accounts are owned by Indians but actually operated from Pakistan. Subsequently, these social media platforms were used in various kinds of anti-India activities like Spying, communication with terrorists, radicalisation, running anti-India propaganda, fuelling divisive sentiments on social media, sextortion, honey-trapping and so on, the notification added.
As these accounts are registered or linked to Indian mobile numbers, people found them trustworthy. The accounts opened on online shopping platforms were also used to supply items to terrorists and anti-India elements.
Apart from that, they were also in the business of creating and selling fake accounts through social media groups which were again used in various kinds of crimes, the notification stated.
PNN