3 more, including a minor, held for filming railway stations, sending data to Pakistan handlers
GHAZIABAD: Three more persons, including a minor, have been taken into custody for allegedly filming railway stations and govt offices in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai and passing the “sensitive” material to handlers based in Pakistan. Police said the trio were drawn into the network by Sardar alias Jora Singh, who is the key recruiter operating across India. With the latest police action, the number of suspects in custody has risen to 18, including six minors. The accused picked up on Sunday were identified as Naushad Ali (20), originally from Muzaffarpur in Bihar and currently living in Faridabad; Meera (28), from Mathura; and a 17-year-old boy. Earlier, police had arrested six persons on March 14. Nine more were held as cops widened the investigation. A special investigation team has since been formed on the chief minister’s order. Dhawal Jaiswal, DCP (city), said Naushad came in contact with Sardar through social media around two years ago.A Class 5 dropout facing financial hardship, he allegedly joined the group and went on to recruit others. “Naushad’s role was to identify and bring in young people with technical skills such as mobile repair, computer work and CCTV handling, especially from poor backgrounds, by offering them money. During investigation, we found more than 10 social media groups linked to him, each with 70 to 80 members. So far, we believe he recruited 15 people. Efforts are on to trace them,” he added. Police said that Meera’s role was to bring women into the network. Cops found more than five groups allegedly created by her on social media, saying she had been in touch with over 10 women in an attempt to persuade them to join. Piyush Kumar Singh, ADCP (crime), said Meera had a criminal background and was earlier involved in arms smuggling. “Apart from recruiting people, she was also supplying weapons,” he said. She was arrested by Mumbai cops in 2024 along with four others and more than six firearms, and again by Delhi Police in July 2025 with six others. A senior officer said Meera had separated from her husband and later married Rahul, only to discover that he was actually Shamsul Khan, an alleged arms and fake currency trafficker from Firozabad in UP. “She did not leave him and instead became part of the trade in the hope of making quick money. On July 24, she was arrested from her Mathura house, where five live.32 bore cartridges were recovered. Based on information from her, Khan was also arrested, and three semi-automatic guns and counterfeit Rs 500 notes with a face value of Rs 4.1 lakh were seized from his hideout,” he added.Police had earlier identified Naushad Ali, Sameer and Sohail as key operatives in the network. The three, along with Mehak, who was arres-ted earlier, and Meera, were in direct touch with Sardar, while others allegedly acted on instructions passed thro-ugh WhatsApp groups.According to police, the accused installed solar-po-wered, SIM-based standalo-ne CCTV cameras at Delhi Cantt and Sonipat railway stations and shared the live feed with the Pakistani num-ber. One camera was remo-ved from Delhi Cantt on March 14 and another from Sonipat on March 18.
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The devices were alleged-ly fixed about 20ft high on platform poles to capture three to four platforms as well as movement of trains. Police said there was also a plan to install similar cameras at 50 more locations from Delhi to Kashmir to gather sensitive military information.“They received instruc-tions through a specific num-ber and were paid for each task. Prima facie, they were paid Rs 5,000 or more per as-signment. Chats contained photographs of several loca-tions in Delhi-NCR, though some had been deleted,” the officer said.
