The Delhi police arrested on Saturday Samajwadi Party Rajya Sabha MP Munavvar Saleem’s personal assistant Farhat Khan for his alleged involvement in a spy racket, two days after its kingpin — a Pakistani official — was expelled from India.
India expelled Mehmood Akhtar on Thursday for using his consular position at Pakistan’s diplomatic mission in Delhi to recruit Indian spies, four of whom have since been held.
Akhtar had named Khan — a resident of Uttar Pradesh — as one of his “close associates”. He was picked up from Mr Saleem’s residence on Friday night and detained. He was arrested on Saturday after prolonged questioning.
“During Akhtar’s questioning, Khan’s name surfaced as one of his close associates in the espionage racket he was running. He also named some other Pakistan high commission staffers,” said a senior police officer. TV channels also aired a confessional video of Akhtar in which he purportedly named Khan and others. In the video, he also said he used to meet Khan at Mandi House Metro station.
A crime branch officer said Khan’s preliminary questioning has led to “certain revelations” that need to be further investigated. Names of several other people allegedly involved in the racket have cropped up.
Delhi Police is also trying to apprehend other members of the espionage ring who, it believes, were in close contact with Akhtar.
Maulana Ramzan and Subhash Jangir of Rajasthan were arrested selling critical defence info pertaining to the deployment of the Indian military and paramilitary forces along the Indo-Pak border to Akhtar in Delhi on Thursday. Another ring member, Shoaib, was arrested Friday after he was brought to New Delhi from Jodhpur. He was in touch with Akhtar.
The module had been active for 18 months, and came on police radar six months ago.
With speculation being rife that more Pakistan high commission employees could be involved in the espionage ring, sources said investigations were continuing and that there could be more arrests.
Sources in the Delhi police told news agencies that they did not rule out possible involvement of some BSF personnel in the racket, as they believe Akhtar and his accomplices could not have got hold of security deployment details unless somebody in the border force was leaking them.
Last year, the police busted an ISI spy ring in the Pakistan high commission and arrested five persons.
