Intelligence authorities here succeeded in breaking further ground in the >Jaisalmer espionage case with the arrest of an employee of the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) late Monday night under Sections 3 and 3/9 of the Official Secrets Act.
Surendra Kumar, a class D employee of the MHA’s Foreigners Division, allegedly passed on sensitive information to suspected Pakistani spy Sumar Khan, who was arrested on February 24 near the Chandan field firing range of the Indian Air Force in Jaisalmer.
“Kumar was in touch with Khan since February 2012,” Additional Director General of Police (Intelligence) Dalpat Singh Dinkar told The Hindu .
Khan was tasked by his Pakistani handling officer to break into the Foreigners Division.
When he couldn't succeed in doing that, he hit on a soft target in the form of Kumar, who carried files from one desk to another, informed sources said.
“Khan provided him with a USB drive to steal some information from the Foreigners Division’s master computer, which he failed to do. Then, they asked him to find some hard copies from the files he used to carry,” said Mr. Dinkar.
Kumar was presented in the Jaipur Metropolitan Magistrate court, which remanded him in police custody till Thursday.
Intelligence authorities had arrested Khan for passing on sensitive information about the IAF’s >“Iron Fist” exercise to Pakistan’s Field Intelligence Unit.
“Khan was in touch with Pakistan’s intelligence agencies since October-November last. He had received proper training to carry out specific tasks,” said Mr. Dinkar.
Khan used different mobile phone numbers and shared strategically important information related to India’s security with his handling officer via coded text messages, intelligence sources said.
