New Delhi: In a new dimension to the
sensational case of an Indian woman diplomat arrested on
charge of spying for Pakistan, a high-ranking Army officer and
an external intelligence agency official have come under the
scanner of security agencies.
The diplomat, 53-year-old Madhuri Gupta, continued to be
grilled in detention today about information she is suspected
to have passed on to Pakistani intelligence agencies. She was
arrested here six days ago after being called back from
Islamabad where she was posted as Second Secretary.
During Gupta`s interrogation and earlier surveillance,
the security agencies have zeroed in on a couple residing in
Rajouri district of Jammu and Kashmir who were in regular
touch through e-mail and telephone with the arrested diplomat
in Islamabad. The Rajouri-based woman had gone to Pakistan
several times.
Highly-placed sources said the senior Army officer used
to visit the Rajouri couple while he was posted in the
region. He is related to the couple but his frequent visits
to them have aroused suspicion of the security agencies, the
sources said.
Some of the e-mails exchanged between Gupta and the
Rajouri woman are part of the documents being held as evidence
against the diplomat, who is in the custody of the Delhi
Police Special Cell.
The role of the external intelligence agency official is
also being investigated. Gupta may have been taking
information from him, the sources said.
However, it was not immediately clear whether he knew
the woman officer`s real designs. He could be questioned by
the security agencies, they said.
Gupta, who belongs to IFS-B service, is the first
official of the Foreign Service who has been arrested for
allegedly spying for Pakistan.
Gupta is said to have been under surveillance of Indian
security agencies for about four months before it was decided
to arrest her. Gupta was called to Delhi last week on the
pretext of discussion over SAARC summit being held at Thimphu.
Security agencies briefed senior Ministry of External
Affairs officials about her alleged activities in Pakistan
which included supplying of sensitive and classified documents
related to Indian interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the
sources said.
Gupta has been extensively questioned by sleuths of
Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police officials during which
she claimed she used to obtain sensitive information within
the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
Sources said the woman diplomat had been allegedly
passing information related to policy matters and movement of
Indian officials to a Pakistani intelligence man identified as
"Rana".
A promotee officer of Ministry of External Affairs,
Gupta was working in the Mission for nearly three years and
reportedly told the investigators that she had been passing
information since 2008.
She was well versed in Urdu and her services were
utilised for translation and interpretation. Earlier, she had
a posting in the Indian Mission in Kuala Lumpur and worked
with the `India Perspective`, a magazine of the External
Publicity wing of the External Affairs Ministry.
- PTI
