Lt col honeytrapped by Bangladeshi ISI 'worker'

A lieutenant colonel is facing charges of establishing unauthorised contacts on Facebook with a Bangladeshi woman, suspected to be an Inter Services Intelligence agent, who had earlier honeytrapped an Indian officer in Dhaka last year.

The Armoured Corps officer deployed in Suratgarh district of Rajasthan is facing a Court of Inquiry for allegedly establishing contacts with the Bangladeshi woman on Facebook, army sources said in New Delhi on Wednesday.

They said the CoI was ordered after the Intelligence Bureau personnel noticed that the officer was regularly in touch with the Bangladeshi woman on Facebook and chatting with her.

Army sources said the officer had not established any physical contact with the woman and it was limited only in the cyber domain.

However, reports suggested the officer was honeytrapped and arrested in an operation along with the Bangladeshi woman, suspected to be working for a foreign spy agency, from a city hotel in May on a tip-off from the external intelligence agencies.

The same woman by the name of Sheeba was allegedly involved in honeytrapping of another Lt Col during his posting in Bangladesh and then blackmailed by ISI which reportedly asked him to spy for Pakistan.

The Infantry officer was doing his Staff College course in Bangladesh's Military Academy in Dhaka.

The officer was reportedly honey-trapped by the woman whom he had met at a party in Dhaka and was then later approached by agents of Pakistan's intelligence agency.

Armed with alleged tapes of the officer and the woman together, the officer was asked by ISI agents to spy for Pakistan.