NIA takes over 'ISI agent' case who blackmailed Colonel

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has taken over the case of alleged Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent Mohammad Parvez, who had 'threatened' an Indian Army Colonel with posting her morphed, objectionable images on the Internet if she didn't leak sensitive defence information.

In mid-September, the Colonel, a resident of south-west Dwarka, approached the Delhi Police alleging that she had been receiving her objectionable pictures from a particular Facebook account with the name of one Ikta Sharma.

The woman had alleged that initially she started receiving calls and morphed images from two unknown numbers demanding crucial information. When she blocked the numbers, her daughter started receiving morphed pictures and messages from the Facebook profile with the same demand, the police had said.

After it was revealed that Parvez had visited Pakistan couple of times, the case was transferred to the Special Cell.

Subsequently, the case was handed over to the NIA, which is now probing ISI activity on the Internet and Parvez's modus operandi.

The probe also revealed that other senior Army officers were also sent requests from this Facebook profile to lure them.

During interrogation, Parvez revealed that the information he was trying to extract from the officer would have been used by Pakistani spy agency to "destabilise the government".

Parvez, who is said to be in his 30s, apparently, confessed to the Delhi Police of his role as an ISI agent who was tasked with gathering confidential information about India's strategic defence deployment from the officer.

Parvez also supplied Indian SIM cards to three other Pakistan nationals, including one Naushad, reportedly a visa counsellor with the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi.