Operation Dolphin Nose: NIA arrests bizman for leaking vital Navy info

National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Friday arrested 53-year-old Abdul Rehman Abdul Jabbar Sheikh, a Mumbai resident, who is believed to be a conspirator in the Visakhapatnam espionage case.

Sheikh’s wife, Shaista Qaiser, who was born in Pakistan, was earlier arrested in connection with the same case for terror funding as part of the operation code-named ‘Dolphin Nose’.

Sheikh, a resident of Agripada in south Mumbai, is a businessman and runs a firm named ‘SR Enterprises’ which exports groundnut to Afghanistan.

Sheikh allegedly used his wife’s phone to share crucial information regarding positioning of Indian Navy ships and submarines at its critical bases. NIA conducted a search at Sheikh’s residence on Saturday and seized digital devices and incriminating documents from his house, said an NIA officer.

Earlier, apart from Qaiser, NIA had arrested key conspirator Mohammed Haroon Haji Abdul Rehman Lakdawala from south Mumbai on May 15.

During searches at Lakdawala’s house, several digital devices and incriminating documents had also been seized by the NIA.

Sheikh is the 15th arrest made in operation ‘Dolphin Nose’ wherein the espionage racket was busted by the Special Intelligence Branch of the Andhra Pradesh Police along with Naval Intelligence and the Intelligence Bureau.

The case was later transferred to NIA.

Pakistan’s Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) agents had honey-trapped the Indian sailors through Facebook, Whatsapp, online dating sites and other social media platforms, and were allegedly paid through Indian conduits for getting crucial information regarding positioning of Indian Navy ships and submarines at its critical bases, said sources in the agencies.