SP MP’s aide held in espionage case

Delhi Police arrested an aide of the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Munawwar Saleem in connection with the espionage case run by a Pakistani High Commission official, which was uncovered on Wednesday. According to the senior officials of the Crime Branch, they detained Farhat, an aide of the SP Rajya Sabha MP Saleem, late on Friday night. He is currently being interrogated.

A Crime Branch official said that Farhat, a resident of Uttar Pradesh, was detained on Friday night from the residence of Saleem in Delhi and was arrested on Saturday afternoon after prolonged questioning. The official added that preliminary questioning of Farhat has led to certain revelations which needs to be further investigated and corroborated as names of other people have cropped up.

Delhi Police is also trying to nab other members of the racket who, it believes, were in close contact with the Pakistan High Commission staffer Mehmood Akhtar who was caught receiving secret documents here on October 26.

On Wednesday, Crime Branch sleuths had caught Pakistan high commission official Mehmood Akhtar along with two Indians identified as Maulana Ramzan and Subhash Jangir at the Delhi Zoo while they were exchanging sensitive defence documents. It was learnt that they were running a spy ring for Pakistan’s spy agency ISI. After Akhtar was held by the cops, he was declared persona non grata by the Ministry of External Affairs and was asked to leave the country within 48 hours. 

Meanwhile, Subhash and Maulana, natives of Rajasthan were arrested on charges of sharing sensitive information, defence documents and deployment details of the BSF along the India-Pakistan border, with the ISI. Consequently, the duo accused were sent to 12-day police custody. A day after the espionage racket was unearthed, one more accomplice of Akhtar, a Jodhpur-based passport and visa agent Shoaib was also arrested from Jodhpur on Thursday.