New Delhi: The Delhi Police Crime Branch claims to have busted a spy racket with the arrest of a vegetable supplier and an Army personnel, and suspects involvement of Pakistan’s intelligence agency, ISI, and some people working with the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
Suspected spy Habibur Rahman supplied vegetables at the Pokhran base camp of the Army in Rajasthan and was picked up from there. The police also arrested Army personnel Paramjit Singh, who was posted in Agra, for helping Rahman. Both have been booked under the Official Secrets Act.
The suspected espionage racket, in operation for two years, has allegedly many hidden players, and the Army base camp in Pokhran was one of its centres, police sources said.
Rahman (41) was brought to Delhi Tuesday evening and Singh on Wednesday.
According to the police, the alleged spy racket involved supplying highly confidential documents, including maps of base camps and documents of operational details. The racket has been running across Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, the sources said.
Stating that Rahman revealed the name of a person posted with the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi during interrogation, the police said the racket appears to involve a large network of spies, and that they are verifying a few other names that have come up in their investigation.
“So far, the name of a person posted with the Pakistan High Commission has been revealed. His name is said to be ‘Kamal’. Other names have also come up, we are trying to verify them as some of these are code names. We are verifying the links,” a senior police officer told ThePrint.
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Hawala channels, multiple accounts
The police claimed to have received intelligence about a spy racket running across Delhi, UP and Rajasthan, which allegedly involved some Indian Army personnel handing over classified documents for monetary benefits through hawala channels.
“Paramjit Singh had come in contact with Rahman at the Pokhran base camp. Singh, too, was posted in Pokhran (earlier) before he was transferred to Agra Cantonment. He was Rahman’s link man,” Special Commissioner of Police, Crime Branch, Praveer Ranjan said.
Singh supplied sensitive Army documents to Rahman who would then pass them on to the ISI, the police claimed.
According to the police, Rahman is an Indian citizen but has relatives in Pakistan’s Sindh province and he came in touch with his handlers in that country during a 2019 visit.
“Rahman was being paid in cash by his handlers and the money was being transferred by him and some associates to the bank accounts of the Army official by wire transfers into bank accounts through hawala traders. Bank account details of the duo have been checked,” the officer said.
“The amount was exchanged through multiple bank accounts. So far, the investigation has revealed transfer of around Rs 9-10 lakh into Singh’s account for providing documents to Rahman,” the source said.
(Edited by Paramita Ghosh)
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