BSF official among 2 arrested in Rajouri; total arrests 5

*Vital information leaked to Pak since 2013

Sanjeev Pargal

JAMMU, Nov 29: Crime Branch of Delhi Police in assistance with Rajouri Police and Kolkata Police today cracked an espionage racket involving two Rajouri based BSF and Government officials having direct links with Pakistan Intelligence Operative (PIO) and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) of Pakistan.
A total of five arrests have so far been made in the racket including two from Rajouri district of Jammu and three from Kolkata while police were raiding six more places in search of more associates of Pakistani Intelligence agencies as it surfaced during questioning of the BSF and Government officials, arrested from Rajouri, that they had been passing very vital information to the neighbouring country on email, WhatsApp and Viber networks and other available resources but were not conversing telephonically for the fear of interception of messages.
Official sources didn’t rule out that five arrested persons might have supplied classified information to the ISI and PIO having implications on national security as certain documents of similar nature were recovered from them.
The two Rajouri based officials, arrested by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police and taken to New Delhi this evening, have been identified as BSF Head Constable Abdul Rashid son of Fazal Hussain, a resident of Manjakote, Rajouri, presently posted in Intelligence wing of the Agency and Kafait Ullah Khan alias Master Raja son of Qudrat Ullah R/o Kalai, Mandi, presently posted as Laboratory Assistant in Government High School, Manjakote in Rajouri district. Both of them were related to each other.
Sources said they have been booked by Delhi Police under FIR No. 166/15 under Section 3/9 of Official Secrets Act.
Sources said Kafait Ullah fell into the trap of Pakistani agencies when he visited Pakistan in 2013, where he was lured by the ISI and PIO agents with monetary considerations and asked to work for them. On return, Khan motivated his relative and BSF official Abdul Rashid to pass on sensitive information to him and Pakistan. Rashid agreed and started supplying information to Kafait Ullah.
They had passed on important information pertaining to deployment of security agencies, infiltration routes etc to Pakistan using emails, WhatsApp and Viber networks to ISI and PIO agents, who were handling them directly through social media.
At the time of arrests, Delhi Police recovered very significant documents from the possession of both the accused, which had serious implications for national security, sources said.
Delhi Police arrested Kafait Ullah from New Delhi railway station when he was on way to Bhopal from Jammu in a train to spread his network there and gather some information sought by his mentors from Pakistan.
On being subjected to interrogation, Kafait Ullah disclosed identity of the BSF official, who had been leaking sensitive information to him. The Delhi Police conducted a raid in Rajouri and arrested the BSF head constable with the assistance of Rajouri police and BSF authorities.
Police parties headed by SSP Rajouri Rajeshwar Singh helped Delhi Police in arrest of the BSF official. Delhi Police also raided Rashid’s residence in Manjakote and recovered some important documents. He was also taken to New Delhi on transit remand.
Sources admitted that Rajouri and neighbouring Poonch being sensitive border districts, the information passed on to the ISI and PIO by the duo could be very significant especially as the BSF official was posted in the Intelligence wing of the BSF.
Sources said Delhi Police teams were conducting raids at six more places in search of some more spies of Pakistani and were hopeful of some arrests in the next couple of days.
The team of officers of Crime Branch of Delhi Police, which busted the spy ring, was led by ACP KPS Malhotra and comprised Inspectors P C Yadav, Sanjeev Yadav, S S Sandhu and Vijay Rastogi, Sub Inspectors Neeraj Kumar, Sandeep Yadav, Vijay Kumar Samaria, Gurmeet Singh, Ritesh, Dataram Yadav,  Aas Mohammad, ASI,  Jai Parkash and other officials of  ISC, Crime Branch, Chankyapuri under the supervision of DCP Bhisham Singh and under overall  supervision of  Alok Kumar, Additional CP/Crime.
Three more agents of ISI and PIO were arrested in Kolkata by the Special Task Force (STF).
PTI adds from Kolkata: The Special Task Force of the Kolkata Police today arrested a contract labourer, his son and another relative for their alleged links to the Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI).
Irshad Ansari (51), a contract labourer with Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Limited (GRSE), his son Asfaq Ansari (23) and relative Mohammed Jahangir — were arrested this afternoon from Dr Sudhir Bose Road in the Iqbalpur police station area in the southern part of the city, a senior STF officer said.
All the accused are residents of the city’s Garden Reach area, he said.
Besides recovering several documents revealing their links to the ISI, the STF also seized Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) with a face value Rs 2 lakh from Irshad and Rs 1.5 lakh each from his Asfaq and Jahangir, he said.
“A hand-drawn map of the GRSE and the Netaji Subhas Dock in the city were also seized from Irshad who has been working with the warship building company for quite sometime. We are checking what his intention was or whether he had passed on the maps of any other sensitive area to the Pakistani agency or not,” the officer said.
The trio have been booked under the Indian Penal Code sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war against the Government of India), 121A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable by section 121), 489B (using as genuine forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes) and 489C (possession of forged or counterfeit currency-notes or bank-notes).
According to Kolkata Police sources, a primary investigation has revealed that both Irshad and Jahangir have relatives in Pakistan’s Karachi and they were “hired” by the ISI “as their agents” during their visit to the neighbouring country.
“Both Irshad and Jahangir have been working as ISI agents for more than ten years and their primary job was to pass on information from India.
“They had been visiting Pakistan for several years and there they were trained by the ISI for this specific service. We are further investigating their roles,” the senior Kolkata Police official said.
The officer said that the information regarding the country’s defence was passed on to the ISI, electronically and manually by the accused.
They had made several visits to Bangladesh in recent times.
The role of Asfaq, who is a second year BA student of a south Kolkata college, is yet to be ascertained, he said.
Asked whether the persons had any connection with the suspected Pakistani agent arrested by the Uttar Pradesh STF in Meerut yesterday, the officer said: “We cannot neglect that. We will get in touch with the UP STF.”
Meanwhile, Kolkata Police insiders said that the person arrested in UP, Mohammad Ejaz from Islamabad who changed his name to Mohammad Kalam in India, was given shelter by Irshad at his Garden Reach home.
“Irshad had helped Kalam get fake documents such as a fake voter ID card made with a Bareilly address along with a fake Aadhar card, to prove his Indian identity “ the source said.
However, family members of the accused alleged that Kolkata Police has “cooked up” a case against them as all the three were “missing” since Thursday morning.
In fact, family members of the three suspected ISI agents claimed to have lodged a “missing diary” with the Garden Reach Police Station on Thursday night itself.
“There is something wrong with the matter. Irshad, Asfaq and Jahangir have been framed. They are not linked to any Pakistani agency… We just have relatives in Pakistan whom we visit at times,” a family member, who declined to be named, said.
The GRSE is one of the country’s leading shipyards which mainly builds and repairs commercial and naval vessels.
Asked if the three arrested had any connection with the suspected ISI agents Akhtar and Jaffar Khan, nabbed a few weeks back, the officer said, “Nothing can be neglected. Probably they were working as a team scattered in different locations in the city… We have to look into that also.”
A city court today remanded Akhtar and Jaffar to 11-day police custody till December 9. The duo was charged under Sections 16, 17 and 18 of the Unlawful Activity Prevention Act, 1967.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here