Four high-rank Army officers have approached the Supreme Court alleging that their right to privacy under the Constitution has been violated by military authorities who seized their mobile phones for an espionage investigation and then suspended three of them on grounds of morality, reported The Indian Express.
Two of the suspended officers are posted in the Military Intelligence Directorate in Delhi while the third is an Instructor at Defence Services Staff College in Wellington. The fourth officer is posted in Mumbai.
In their petition, the four officers have claimed that their mobile phones and other personal digital assets were seized by Army authorities on the directions of Directorate General of Military Intelligence (DGMI).
As per the details of the petition, as quoted by The Indian Express, it was suspected that a WhatsApp group — ‘Patiala Peg’ — of which these officers were members, had been infiltrated by a Pakistan Intelligence Operative (PIO), triggering a probe to find if classified information had been shared.
The officers alleged in the petition that they were suspended on May 8 for violating the Army’s cyber security policy despite the fact that no espionage links of any of these officers were found in the subsequent investigation by the Army.
On the other hand, the suspension order states that the Board of Officers (BOO) examined the digital assets of the officers and found evidence which impinges on their conduct as officers and gentlemen.
According to the orders, the BOO found some of the officers were part of a WhatsApp group used for “immoral, unethical (sexual misconduct) activities”.
The suspension orders also state that the officers were part of a WhatsApp Group that had foreign nationals as members who were not personally known to the officers.
