Espionage case: Delhi cops arrest school teacher from Rajouri

Delhi Police on Saturday apprehended a school teacher from Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with an alleged ISI-linked espionage racket, the fourth arrest in the case. The accused, identified as Sabar, is a teacher at a government school at Rajouri. 

He was arrested this morning and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act, said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

Kafaitullah Khan was the first person to be arrested from New Delhi on November 26, while he was heading to Bhopal to attend a religious congregation and allegedly to recruit more spies, followed by the arrests of a serving BSF personnel Abdul Rasheed and a former Army hawaldar, identified as Munawwar Ahmad Mir.

Sabar is believed to be the one through whom Khan met Rasheed, Mir and his other associates, including the serving Army personnel for whom a police team was sent to Siliguri in West 

Bengal, said a senior police official.

Both Mir and Khan were arrested by the 14-member team of the Inter-State Cell of the Crime Branch which rushed to Rajouri on Wednesday. They have been presented before a court there and shall be brought to Delhi on transit remand, said the official.

Sabar was arrested amid high drama as he tried to dodge the Delhi Police team which reached the village escorted by Rajouri police and some locals too resisted police action.

“It is suspected that Sabar was informed about the raid by someone in advance as the police team found the door of his residence locked from outside. Suddenly, Sabar emerged from the roof and jumped in the backyard,” said a police official.

He injured his foot and collapsed. Soon some agitated locals gathered and allegedly started obstructing the police team, said the official.

The police did not find any documents from Sabar’s possession. However, they claimed to have seized enough evidence against him — including Khan’s disclosure and telephonic conversations obtained from a CD — for the arrest, said the official.

Another police official, who is probing the money trail in connection with the alleged racket, said that the police have found that Khan had deposited Rs 5,000 twice in the bank account of Sabar.

However, these details are to be cross-examined with the ongoing probe in which it has emerged that Khan allegedly used to receive money from Pakistan via money transfers routed through Saudi Arabia and UAE.

Khan is believed to be more or less on a permanent payroll, the official alleged. Sabar is believed to have received crucial information about troop movements along the borders in case of a war or a war-like situation between India and Pakistan from the suspect based near Siliguri, being hunted for by another eight-member team of Crime Branch.