National Investigation Agency questions man held for links with Pak operatives

A postgraduate in statistics from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University in Gujarat, Jambure was working at a software company in Pune.

During the STF probe, it was also found that Jambure was in regular touch with two Pakistani army intelligence officials since long. “In 2018, Jambure met one Danish alias Syed Danish Ali Naqvi of Khanki, Faislabad, Pakistan, through Facebook messenger, who identified himself as Freelancer at “Chegg”, an American education technology company. Abhijeet had shared his user ID and password of “Chegg” with Danish.

“Danish was working in Chegg on Jambure’s identity but the earning was credited in Abhijeet’s account in India. In return, he had to do some work for Danish,” said STF IG JN Pankaj.

Subsequently, Danish introduced Jambure to his friend Khurram alias Abdul Hamid of Karachi, Pakistan. Khurram is believed to be a senior Pakistan Army intelligence officer having big base and network of agents in India. And as per instruction of Khurram, he used to transfer money to various PIOs working in India, said Pankaj.

“While the ATS probe focuses on his link to terrorist activities in Maharashtra, the NIA and IB are probing what kind of information he has shared to Pakistani agents and transactions made across India,” said a senior STF officer.

Jambure is the first arrest made outside Odisha by the STF in the OTP sharing scam as five others from the state were arrested in connection with the scam.

In June, the STF has arrested one Pritam Kar, who according to the STF officials, was in direct touch with at least two PIO/ISI agents and had physically met them multiple times in other states. Kar was accused of providing SIM, debit card to accused in last year’s Mangalore auto blast.

Earlier, the STF has arrested three persons including a teacher of an Industrial Training Institute (ITI) on May 14 and a fourth accused on June 8 on similar charges. Unlike Pritam, these four accused had not physically met with the PIOs. Another accused was also arrested in June last week.