Two espionage rackets with ISI links were busted in Jammu and Kolkata in two separate incidents on Sunday. Documents and maps with security implications were seized.
Two persons were held in connection with the Jammu and Kashmir spy ring and three in the Kolkata operation.
Kafaitullah Khan alias Master Raja and Abdul Rasheed are residents of Jammu and Kashmir and it is alleged that by cultivating sources in the Army and the BSF (where Rasheed is posted as a head constable), they started passing on information to the Pakistani intelligence through e-mails, WhatsApp and Viber.
Khan is an agent of the Pakistani intelligence. He was assigned specific tasks, mainly concerning the deployment of security forces and Air Force operations.
The Delhi police uncovered the J&K operation with the arrest of Khan at the New Delhi railway station. Rasheed was nabbed in Rajouri on Sunday.
Irshad Ansari, Asfaq Ansari and Md. Jahangir were arrested from Ekbalpore in Kolkata.
The accused have been charged under various sections of the IPC including attempt to wage war against the state (Section 121 of IPC) and criminal conspiracy (120 B of the IPC).
“Irshad Ansari (52), Asfaq Ansari (23) and Md. Jahangir (48) were arrested from Ekbalpore. We have seized hand-drawn maps of the Garden Reach Shipbuilding factory area and the Netaji Subhas Chandra docks along with other documents,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Headquarters) Rajiv Mishra said. All of them are residents of the Garden Reach area in west Kolkata. Irshad Ansari worked as contract labour in the Garden Reach Shipbuilders and Engineers for the last 10 years.
“The three had visited Pakistan and it seems they were hired by the ISI during the visit,” Deputy Commissioner of the Special Task Force Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi told journalists. He also said that the accused had relatives in Pakistan and were passing on “incriminating information to them.”
