‘Curious’ to ‘Jaish link’: Behind the arrest of Jaipur woman with a secret online life

According to investigators, Babita’s purported disillusionment with life and society at large may have led her to establish such contacts. She had gotten married in 2017, but the marriage barely lasted a month. Having completed a computer course in the same year, she used to spend a lot of time on the internet, they say.

Over a year ago, she started interacting with “jihadi and anti-national” social media pages, handles and profiles, which, officials say, was simply “borne out of curiosity”.

“She used to watch their videos and found them to be brave and charismatic,” an official told The Indian Express.

However, as she allegedly started going deeper and deeper into the ideology, she liked and interacted with the social media pages associated with JeM, Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), among others, “especially liking the pages with guns as the profile picture”, an officer said.

“She had joined over 300 such groups on social media. From there, she exchanged numbers and also started chatting with some of the persons behind these groups on WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger,” the officer said, adding that contacts from Pakistan and Afghanistan were allegedly found on her phone.

Online ‘friendships’

“Essentially, she was lured by a person who kept praising her beauty, her eyes, etc. As conversations went long into the night, she grew close and eventually wanted to get married to the person who identified himself as Abu Ubaidah, a close associate of JeM founder and leader Masood Azhar,” the officer said.

Another person she had allegedly been in touch was someone claiming to be Yusuf Azhar, alias Mohammed Salim, Masood Azhar’s brother-in-law, the officer added. However, as per Indian security agencies, Yusuf was killed in the strikes carried out on May 7 last year, as part of Operation Sindoor in the aftermath of the terror attack in Pahalgam that took place on April 22.

“During their video calls, Ubaidah used to keep his face covered, saying he can’t reveal his face for safety reasons. As she wanted to get married to him, a ‘ceremony’ was arranged with a Muslim cleric where she was asked to recite a kalma for conversion, and she was given an Islamic name, Khadija. She was also taught about namaz,” the officer said.

Investigators said she “developed an emotional connection with the ideology… having been left out and disillusioned with her own society”. For example, they said one of the pages she had liked was ‘Duniya Dhokebaaz (world is deceitful)’. And through the chats, she allegedly found validation from persons she considered “brave warriors”, they said.

She perhaps “thought that she would have a better life in Pakistan and wanted to travel there too”, the officer said. She had completed her BA, but

didn’t have a job. Moreover, her divorce case and a case of dowry harassment were also pending. She had been living with her parents ever since her separation.

Subsequently, she was told that she could be brought to Pakistan via the Nepal-Saudi Arabia-UAE route. However, when she told them she didn’t have a visa or even a passport, and that it would require money as well, “They told her that they would send her money through cryptocurrency. The plan was to arrange for illegal travel,” an investigator said.

However, police said no such monetary exchange had taken place before her arrest.

Police notice ‘suspicious’ activity

ATS SP Manish Tripathi had said at the time of her arrest that her “suspicious” activities on social media had drawn police’s attention, and when they looked deeper, they found that she was allegedly carrying out “anti-national” activities online.

Officials now say that while they had been tracking her online activities, key evidence in the case was established when it was found that she was in contact with some phone numbers that had been linked to a “sensitive” FIR registered in Jammu and Kashmir in 2016.

The case against Babita has been lodged under UAPA sections 38 (offence relating to membership of a terrorist organisation) and 39 (offence relating to support given to a terrorist organisation), as well as BNS section 238, which deals with causing the disappearance of evidence. Babita had allegedly deleted data from her phone that is currently with the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL).

Investigators say she had not been given a “task” yet, and had not shared any confidential information either, having been caught in the primary stage of the operation. However, Babita had allegedly also purchased some SIM cards, which were being used by others for WhatsApp.

Investigators described her as “ultra radicalised” and “a big potential threat”. Her neighbours say that on the few occasions they saw her, their interactions were limited. “It is a new colony; we don’t know who has settled from where. Sometimes, it takes years to establish a connection,” said a neighbour who didn’t wish to be identified.

As for her parents, police say they had no clue about her late-night chatting or video calls.

ATS SP Manish Tripathi said, “Investigation revealed that she was in touch with certain foreign nationals who work towards hurting India’s sovereignty. Additionally, they were seeking to gain information through her to spread terrorism in India.”