No, Bahrain has not arrested an Indian national for espionage

Amid escalating tensions in West Asia, several social media users have claimed that Bahrain has arrested an Indian national named Nitin Mohan on charges of espionage for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. The claim is accompanied by an image of a bearded man in a black T-shirt, handcuffed in front of a backdrop featuring the emblem of Bahrain’s interior ministry.

A Pakistan-based X account, The Intel Consortium, shared the purported image, claiming that an Indian telecommunications engineer, Nitin Mohan, had been arrested by Bahrain’s intelligence for “transmitting sensitive geospatial data, photographs, and video reconnaissance of strategic locations” to Mossad. (Archive)

The post garnered around 1.2 million views. 

Another X account, Artaban 1727 AD (@3lm_a1), shared the same image with similar claims, stating that an Indian national named Nitin Mohan had been arrested by Bahraini authorities on charges of leaking sensitive data to Israel’s Mossad agency. (Archive)

🚨 عاجل :

السلطات البحرينية تعتقل مهندس اتصالات هندي يُدعى نيتين موهان بتهمة تسريب بيانات حساسة إلى جهاز الموساد الإسرائيلي.

▫️المتهم قام بحسب التقارير الأولية ، بنقل بيانات جغرافية وصور وفيديوهات استطلاع لمواقع استراتيجية داخل البحرين.
▫️المعلومات المسربة تتعلق بمواقع حساسة… pic.twitter.com/EglMzYIay7

— أرطبون ﮼١٧٢٧م ⚖️🇸🇦 (@3lm_a1) March 10, 2026

The post amassed around 1 million views.

Additionally, another Pakistan-based X-account, Expose Propaganda (@EPropoganda1), shared the purported image on March 10, 2026, with similar claims. (Archive)

Pakistani newspaper Minute Mirror published a story on its web portal on March 10, headlined “Bahrain arrests Indian national allegedly spying for Israeli Mossad”. The report carried the same photo.

Several social media users have amplified the same claim with the purported image. A few of them are shown in the gallery below:

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Fact Check

During our investigation, we found a press release issued by Bahrain’s interior ministry on March 9, 2026. The release stated that the ministry had arrested six Asian nationals through the cybercrime department of the General Directorate for Anti-Corruption and Economic and Electronic Security.

They were identified as Mohammad Muar Akbar, Afzal Khan, Ahmad Mumtaz, Arslan Ali Sajid and Abdul Rahman Abdul Sattar from Pakistan and Muhammad Israfil Mir from Bangladesh. 

According to the statement, the individuals were referred to public prosecution for “filming, publishing, and republishing video clips” related to the impacts of Iranian aggression. They were accused of sympathising with and glorifying acts of hostility in a way that could undermine public order. The authorities also said that the videos were shared through their social media accounts, contributing to the spread of misinformation and fear among citizens and residents.

The press release does not mention any Indian national, nor does it reference any acts of espionage related to Mossad. Also, the individual shown in the viral photo does not feature among the six.  

When we performed a reverse image search with the viral image, we found that it had no earlier matches. This strongly suggests that the image is artificially generated.

To sum up, the claim that an Indian national named Nitin Mohan has been arrested by the Bahrain authorities under the charges of spying for Mossad is baseless and false. Six Asians — including five Pakistanis and one Bangladeshi — were arrested for alleged cybercrime violations in Bahrain.