Police in Delhi and Kolkata arrested five people on Sunday on charges of espionage, of which one was a person who had trained with Jammu and Kashmir police and was allegedly providing confidential information to his relative working for Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime Branch) Delhi, Ravindra Yadav, told Indian Express that the accused were identified as Kafaitullah Khan alias Master Raja (44), a resident of Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir, and Abdul Rasheed.
Khan is an assistant librarian in a high school in Rajouri district and is related to Rasheed.
According to police, Khan passed on information to the Pakistan intelligence operative and Rasheed was one of his key sources. Following a tip-off, police arrested Khan from New Delhi Railway station after documents having national security implications were recovered from his possession.
Upon investigation, the police came to know that Khan had visited Pakistan in 2013 and got in touch with an ISI agent. He agreed to share secret information on the defence forces in lieu of money. Moreover, according to Khan, he had sourced information from various army staff.
The report quotes Yadav as saying, “Khan was given specific tasks by the Pakistan intelligence operative, mainly concerned with the deployment of security forces and air force operations. He was going to Bhopal to allegedly recruit more persons for the racket. Khan had roped in Rasheed into the network, luring him with a share of the commission he received from ISI agents. Police raided Rasheed’s residence in Rajouri district and recovered more confidential documents.”
Khan reportedly used e-mail, WhatsApp and Viber networks for passing on information to his Pakistani handlers.
The report also states that Khan’s younger brother, who is in the Indian Army, will also be questioned. Another retired Army havaldar is also thought to be involved in this racket.
Kolkata
On the same day, police in Kolkata arrested a contract labourer, Irshad Ansari (51), his son Asfaq Ansari and another relative, Mohammed Jahangir on similar charges.
A NDTV report says both Irshad and Jahangir have relatives in Karachi and they were hired by the ISI. They have been working as ISI agents for more than 10 years and have been trained by the ISI.