Dr. Bhashyam Kasturi
The Gujarat Police launched Operation ‘Delta Hunt’ to detect and deport illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the State of Gujarat. Launched in June 2026, the operation has thus far seen over 600 illegal Bangladeshi nationals being detained by the police. This is a state-wide operation, using technical surveillance and human intelligence to track down illegal immigrants. Official reports suggest that a database of over 6,000 individuals was used during this operation, and mobile numbers were tracked to ascertain locations and identities. More importantly, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI-related intelligence fusion systems were used to good effect, to collate mobile numbers and trace potential suspects. The operation to hunt illegal immigrants includes – targeting the support eco-system, that allows such immigrants to obtain documents to help them to stay in India.
This operation therefore is significant, for the first time data from all sources is being used to systematically trace and deport illegal immigrants. Obviously, ‘Delta Hunt’ will be soon launched in West Bengal, a state where the BJP has just won elections. The future of policing in India has just been made public in Gujarat.
Delta Hunt: The modus operandi
What is known so far: the operation ‘Delta Hunt’ aims to track down ‘infiltrators’ who threaten national security. Further, at the press conference, the deputy Chief minister and Home Minister of Gujarat, Harsh Sanghvi, stated that, “All those who shelter or provide assistance to illegal immigrants and violate the law by not getting these immigrants verified by the police will also face action”. The action is being taken on the basis of a database, of 6,200 suspected Bangladeshi nationals, available with the Gujarat Police. This is based on Indian mobile numbers that had been in communication with sources across the border in Bangladesh and several other inputs. India’s intelligence agencies have become adept at picking up such information using big data. The National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) already has a huge database relating to bank records, mobile numbers and residence proofs which can be accessed by the police in any state in India. The NATGRID database has been useful to verify data available with the State Police.
Notably, The Hindu reported that a few days before the operation, Home Minister Amit Shah visited the State and announced a nation-wide crackdown on illegal infiltrators. The State DGP, K.L.N. Rao’s statement, ‘ground networks had been activated to enable the state to identify illegals’, shows the preparation required for such operations. The other aspect of note is the joint coordinated operation launched by the Crime Branch, Special Operations Group and local police. The scale of ‘Delta Hunt’ also indicates central assistance, in the form of intelligence inputs from central agencies like NATGRID, National Technical Research Organization and the National Investigation Agency. In terms of numbers, more females than males have been detained; 323 females as compared to 161 males. This is because these immigrants were able to find jobs in a few specific sectors in the State. Occupation patterns showed that females were mostly in the spa and wellness industry making them easier to detect, while males worked in odd jobs, many of them on the street as rag-pickers for instance. Given the informal nature of such employment detection would have been more difficult and making evasion an easier task.
AI in Intelligence Fusion: Transforming National Security Decision-Making
Gujarat’s Cyber Centre for Excellence collected, collated and filtered huge amounts of telecom data and then isolated numbers that had been in frequent contact with operatives in Bangladesh. According to a circular by Government of Gujarat, Home Department, dated 25 May 2026, the Cyber Centre was officially established in May 2026, strangely just before the launch of ‘Delta Hunt’. The recently launched Cyber centre is a specialized cyber policing institution to strengthen the State’s capabilities in the areas of cyber-crime prevention, detection, investigation and research, cyber intelligence, cyber forensics, cyber awareness, and policy support. This makes it clear that work on the database would have been carried out using big data and AI, much earlier and put to good use only now.
Existing cyber security related organisations including State Cyber Crime Cell, CID Crime & Railways, Gujarat have been merged with the Centre for Excellence. But the heart of the system uses AI-driven software provided by a Delhi-based company, Innefu Labs, in operation since 2010. Their Prophecy Suite converts raw data into actionable intelligence and allowed the Gujarat police to rapidly go through the database of phone numbers for scrutiny and action. According to post by Manish Gupta, on 15 October 2025, on the Innefu website, “This is the power of sovereign AI. However, the human intelligence element does not get missed in this AI-led game. It is information from the local police, FIRs, legal cases and more, that allow the data to be aggregated and collated. Without local validation by the police of data-driven data, it would have been difficult to identify the suspects in urban areas like Ahmedabad city and Surat”.
The Next Frontier in Intelligence Fusion
Technology driven data analysis has its benefits. When combined with human intelligence, it gives police the ability to look deep into the local community.
When the NATGRID was created, one of the issues raised related to possible invasion of privacy and potential human rights abuses. Today, that stage appears that ‘Delta Hunt’ has implications at an all-India level also. While, the capability to intercept phone calls has been there with Indian agencies for some time now, the fusion of intelligence from multiple sources is new and gives an added edge to security planners.
The other aspect is that the AI-driven software is homegrown and therefore is not open to intervention by external users. This aspect of ‘Atmanirbhartha’ is praiseworthy.
