Punjab Police Arrest 20-Year-Old for Allegedly Streaming Indian Army Movements to Pakistan via CCTV Feed

Ludhiana, August 29, 2026 — Punjab Police have arrested a 20-year-old man from Gurdaspur district for allegedly giving Pakistan-based handlers round-the-clock live access to CCTV footage of Indian Army vehicle movement on the Ludhiana–Ferozepur Road, a route that leads towards the strategically sensitive Baddowal Cantonment.

The accused has been identified as Rachhpal Singh, also reported as Rachpal Singh, a resident of Fatehgarh Churian in Gurdaspur. Police said he had rented a shop in New Sunder Nagar on the Ludhiana–Ferozepur Road, opposite a private hospital and around six kilometres from Baddowal Cantonment, and was using it as a footwear store cover. The shop, investigators said, was not opened regularly, but four banned Chinese CCTV cameras had been installed outside it facing the main road. Military vehicles travelling towards Ferozepur and the western frontier would have passed directly through the cameras’ field of view.

DCP (Investigation) Harpal Singh said the case came to light after a specific tip-off. “He ran a shoe store but would not open shop regularly. The CCTVs installed outside his shop faced in the direction of Ludhiana-Ferozepur road. All these raised suspicion,” an officer told reporters. Police allege that Pakistan-based handlers were able to view the feed live through mobile applications after Rachhpal shared the user IDs and passwords. According to investigators, the stream remained accessible 24 hours a day.

Two months of alleged surveillance and cash payments

Interrogation has suggested that the arrangement had been running for about two months. Police said Rachhpal allegedly received between ₹2.5 lakh and ₹3 lakh in cash in instalments, along with ₹40,000 a month towards shop rent. Investigators suspect the money was routed through cross-border drug smugglers. They have identified the intermediary through whom he first came into contact with the handlers and are trying to establish how the link was created — whether through social media, an existing criminal network, or another recruiter.

A case has been registered at Sarabha Nagar police station under Sections 3, 4, 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, and Section 61(2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, which deals with criminal conspiracy. Police recovered four cameras with memory cards. Agencies are now examining whether the footage was only streamed live or also recorded and stored, who else may have had access, and whether the accused was part of a larger module.

Why the Ludhiana–Ferozepur corridor matters

The location of the cameras has raised particular concern because Baddowal Cantonment is not just a roadside military installation. It houses the 17 Field Ammunition Depot and an Air Defence Unit that provides protection to the nearby Halwara Air Force Station and Ludhiana. The depot was established to support the Ferozepur frontier, which lies close to the Pakistan border. The Ludhiana–Ferozepur Road is a natural movement corridor for military convoys, and a persistent live feed of that traffic could reveal the types of vehicles being used, how often they move, when they move and in which direction. Such information can help map logistics patterns and movement routines.

Part of a wider pattern in Punjab

Police and national media have described the Ludhiana case as one more in a series of similar modules uncovered in Punjab in recent months. In Kapurthala, suspects were arrested after a SIM-based Chinese camera mounted on a pole transmitted live footage of military activity. In Pathankot, a resident was arrested for installing an internet-enabled camera on the Pathankot–Jammu stretch of NH-44, a major route used by the Army and paramilitary forces, and sharing the feed with handlers; one report said he received ₹40,000 and instructions from a contact in Dubai. Earlier in 2026, Delhi Police Special Cell and Punjab units dismantled a larger ISI-linked module in which young men, some recruited on Instagram, installed solar-powered and 4G CCTV cameras near Army, Air Force and BSF sites across Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan and Jammu.

The recurring pattern, according to investigators, is the use of low-cost, internet-connected Chinese cameras, civilian covers such as shops or rented premises, and remote access through applications after login credentials are shared. Payments are often linked to the same smuggling networks that move drugs and weapons across the border, while the recruits are frequently young men from border districts who may be motivated more by money than ideology.

The banned-camera issue

The Indian government has banned the sale of certain internet-connected Chinese CCTV systems on security grounds. Officials say Indian agencies cannot easily access the overseas servers used by these devices, while anyone with a username and password can watch the feed from abroad. Despite the ban, police say such cameras continue to enter cities like Ludhiana through Delhi and are sold locally. Investigators believe that gap between cheap hardware, easy remote access and weak last-mile enforcement is what these modules exploit.

Questions investigators are still pursuing

Police have not publicly named the Pakistan-based handlers or confirmed an ISI command link in court papers, although several reports have described the case in those terms. Investigators are now trying to establish how long the feed operated and what specific movements it captured, whether Rachhpal had local help from a landlord, electrician or someone involved in installation or maintenance, whether similar cameras are active at other points along the Ferozepur axis, and how the money crossed the border and whether the suspected drug-smuggling channel can be traced further.

Ludhiana police and intelligence agencies are treating the matter both as a prosecution under the Official Secrets Act and as a counter-intelligence lead. The arrests and seizures in Pathankot and Kapurthala have strengthened suspicions that the camera placements were part of a wider effort to plant low-cost, deniable sensors on roads used by Indian forces moving towards the western theatre, rather than an isolated freelance operation.

The accused remains in custody, and further arrests will depend on what investigators recover from the cameras, mobile phones and money trail.