Man accused of spying for Pakistan during ‘Operation Sindoor’ gets bail

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted bail to a man accused of passing on sensitive information about Operation Sindoor to Pakistan.

Justice Vinod S Bharadwaj noted on April 1 that the prosecution had failed to submit any material to substantiate its allegations against Davender Singh.

Operation Sindoor refers to strikes carried out by the Indian military on alleged terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in response to the Pahalgam terror attack.

Singh was arrested in May on the basis of a case registered in Haryana’s Kaithal district.

The prosecution alleged that he had travelled to Pakistan in November 2024 through the Kartarpur corridor and had shared information about the movements of the Indian Army with individuals in Pakistan.

It also alleged that he made calls to a Pakistani man allegedly involved in espionage activities from April 18 to May 10 last year. India’s military operation had begun on May 9.

Singh, however, maintained that he had travelled to Pakistan only for a pilgrimage, remained within the gurdwara premises and did not engage in any illegal activities.

The judge noted that the case emanated from a disclosure statement made by Singh in a separate case, in which he was booked under the Arms Act for allegedly uploading his own photograph with pistols and guns on the social media platform Facebook.

In the disclosure statement, Singh was also said to have admitted that he deleted some data from his phone as he was apprehending arrest.

Singh’s counsel told the court that his client had already been granted bail in the Arms Act case on May 15 and his phone had been seized. However, on the same day, a new case was filed against Singh on allegations that he shared sensitive information with individuals in Pakistan.

Bharadwaj asked the prosecution what the need was for filing a second case when Singh’s mobile phone had already been seized, what was the basis for assuming that the Pakistani man he spoke to was an intelligence operative, whether a video found on his phone had been shared with anyone, and whether there was any evidence against the accused man apart from the disclosure statement.

“Learned state counsel, however, is not in a position to refer to any specific material on the basis whereof it may be assumed that any video or photographs had been transmitted or shared by the petitioner herein with any other person, including those based in Pakistan,” the judge said.

The counsel could also not state whether the video on Singh’s phone pertained to the period between the attack at Pahalgam and the start of Operation Sindoor, the court noted.

The court said that when it asked the counsel for the state about the nature of information allegedly shared with Pakistani individuals, he “was not in a position to point out any specific material or evidence on record in support thereof”.

The judge said that based on these responses, and based on the fact that a sanction for prosecution under the Official Secrets Act had not yet been granted, Singh was entitled to bail.