The Special Task Force (STF) of the West Bengal Police has arrested Zafar Sham, alias Sunny, from Rishra in Hooghly district. Investigators revealed that Sunny, a resident of Kolkata's Topsia area, fled to Rishra to hide as police raids intensified following the earlier arrest of suspected Pakistani spy Rana Rauf, alias Wahab Alam. The STF is currently probing whether Sunny acted as a handler or a sleeper cell within the espionage network.
Preliminary investigations indicate that Sunny played a direct role in aiding Rana Rauf to build and strengthen an organized 'networking cell' in the region. Beyond assistance with logistics, Sunny reportedly helped Rana secure employment at a factory in Howrah to establish a cover. Rana, believed to be an ISI operative, had entered India illegally via Nepal and was residing in Topsia using fraudulent identity documents.
The crackdown stems from disclosures made during interrogations of Rana, who was apprehended in Habra on August 12. Intelligence officials uncovered that ISI operatives held strategic meetings in Nepal—attended by Rana and other foreign agents—to fund and map out espionage networks across West Bengal via hawala channels. With Sunny's arrest, the STF has now detained four individuals in connection with the expanding module.