Army man at Pokhran base and fruit vendor arrested under OSA
New Delhi: The Delhi Police have now booked Habib-Ur Rehman, a vegetable vendor arrested from Pokhran, under the Official Secrets Act, for allegedly passing on documents related to national security and sovereignty of India to Pakistan's ISI. He is also accused of getting an army man at the Pokhran Base to help him get the documents.
Police have also arrested the Indian Army Naik Clerk for allegedly helping Habib in this illegal activity.
Special CP (crime) Praveer Ranjan said Habib was in the trade of supplying fruits and vegetables to different vendors including the army base at Pokhran, Rajasthan. "While he was supplying goods at this canteen, he came in contact with one army official. Initially, the said army officer was posted at Pokhran, Rajasthan and later on transferred to another State — but that does not affect the exchange of any vital, crucial inside information reaching the arrestee," he said.
It was further disclosed by Habib that the information so provided to him (Habib), is being further passed on to his Pakistani handlers.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (crime) Monika Bharadwaj said for all the services, he was being paid in cash by his handlers and the same was being further transferred by him and his associates to the bank accounts of his associate army officer by wire transfers to his bank accounts through some hawala traders.
"The recovered documents were provided to by the above army official and he was to send, convey these recovered documents to his handler. In the past also, he had sent several documents, a CD containing vital information of Army and other information to his handler and received a handsome remuneration for the same," she said.
As per the official, in 2019, he had visited Pakistan. Both Paramjeet and Habib were arrested by a team led by inspector Pankaj Arora. As per the official, documents have been verified and authenticated by the Army headquarters, which confirmed the authenticity and informed that the documents contain highly secret information related to their activities.
Habib was initially in Bikaner and later shifted based to Pokhran in 2009 where he started to supply vegetables, fruits and other articles as a contractor, police said. Later he started to supply vegetables, fruits, ice and other articles to the Pokhran Army base camp on a contractual basis," they added.
