A team from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrived in Bhubaneswar on Monday to interrogate Abhijeet Sanjay Jambure, who was arrested for his alleged communication with Pakistani intelligence officials. The Special Task Force (STF) of the Odisha Police had apprehended Abhijeet, an employee of a software company, on June 29 in Pune, Maharashtra. Currently, he is under a four-day police remand. According to K.K. Panigrahi, superintendent of police, STF, Abhijeet was connected to seven Pakistani citizens and ten Nigerian citizens through WhatsApp.
On Sunday, the Mumbai Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) also questioned Abhijeet, while the NIA team began their interrogation on Monday. It is alleged that Abhijeet had direct contact with Pakistani agents and Nigerian nationals. Panigrahi mentioned that Abhijeet had been in regular communication with two Pakistani intelligence officials for a long time. In 2018, he met a person named Danish alias Syed Danish Ali Naqvi from Faisalabad, Pakistan on Facebook Messenger. Danish claimed to be a freelancer at Chegg, an American education technology company. Abhijeet shared his user ID and password with Danish, who used it to work for Chegg under Abhijeet’s identity. However, the earnings were credited to Abhijeet’s account in India. In return for this favor, Abhijeet had to perform tasks assigned by Danish.
Danish introduced Abhijeet to another individual named Khurram Ali Abdul Hamid from Karachi, Pakistan. Khurram is believed to be a senior intelligence officer in the Pakistan Army, with a large network of agents in India. Following Khurram’s instructions, Abhijeet transferred money to various People of Indian Origin (PIOs) working in India, stated the superintendent of police. Abhijeet had also transferred money to Pathani Samant Lenka, who was previously arrested by the STF for involvement in an OTP sharing scam. Authorities are questioning Abhijeet to gather more information about the Pakistani agents, determine if he shared any crucial information with them, and uncover any connections with other PIOs in India. Sources have revealed that six individuals have been arrested so far for sharing OTPs of pre-activated SIM cards with criminals and suspected Pakistani agents.
