Pakistan spy ring: Now, school teacher with ISI links arrested

Delhi Police on Saturday apprehended a school teacher from Rajouri district in Jammu and Kashmir in connection with an alleged Inter-Services Intelligence-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 on Saturday morning and booked under provisions of the Official Secrets Act, said Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Ravindra Yadav.

This is the fourth arrest in connection with the espionage racket allegedly headed by suspected ISI operative Kafaitullah Khan.

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 recruit more spies, followed by the arrests of a serving Border Security Force 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.

Later, senior Delhi Police officials had to call up their counterparts in Jammu and Kashmir for the matter to be sorted out, 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.

He sent the information across the border to alleged intelligence operatives, a police source claimed. 

“Meanwhile, during Mir’s interrogation it has emerged that he had served during Kargil war and was operating as a local worker for Peoples Democratic Party there,” said an official privy to the investigation.

His arrest too had led to mild protest in the region with a section, led by a political leader, claiming that Mir was being framed in the case, said the official.

Police have not found any document from Mir’s possession but claimed that they had sufficient evidence -- including telephonic conversation and other details -- to arrest him, said the source.

The interrogation of Mir and Sabar may lead them to the alleged ISI source in the office of the Pakistan high commission, the source said.

The alleged ISI source at the high commission was about to help Khan with a visa for travelling to Pakistan, where he was about to his spy counterparts and avail more resources and training in connection with the espionage racket, said police.

The police team sent to Rajouri is presently looking for a serving army personnel whose name had come up during Khan’s interrogation and is believed to be a major node in the spying racket.

Khan, who is an alleged Pakistan Intelligence Operative heading an espionage racket here backed by the ISI, was intercepted in Delhi on November 26. The police took him to Rajouri on transit remand from where they arrested Abdul Rasheed, said police.

Police claimed to have recovered secret and confidential documents from the possession of both, on the basis of which they invoked provisions of the Official Secrets Act.

Rasheed was then brought to Delhi and further interrogation revealed the name of four more suspects – three in Rajouri district, of which two have been arrested, and one in West Bengal’s Siliguri, police added.