Police arrested the suspected ISI operative, and case was handed over to NIA
National Investigation Agency
Chennai: Investigators from the National Investigation Agency (NIA) questioned Thameem Ansari, the first suspect arrested in September 2012 in the sensational Pakistan spy case, again on Friday.“We had some information to corroborate with him. The arrest of another suspected spy, Arun Selvarajan, is linked to Thameem’s case,” sources in NIA said.The Tamil Nadu police arrested the suspected ISI operative, a native of Thanjavur, and six months later, the case was handed over to NIA for further probe because of the international ramifications.
Amir Zubair Siddiqui, a Pakistani diplomat working in the high commission in Colombo, Sri Lanka, was also cited as an accused in the FIR related to Ansari’s case.“Thameem Ansari was summoned for questioning on Friday, and came with his lawyer. The questioning was more linked to information collected after the arrest and custodial questioning of Arun Selvarajan, a Lankan allegedly hired by the ISI to operate as its agent in Chennai. Arun Selvarajan was arrested in September this year,” NIA sources said.
Thameem Ansari was arrested during an IB-Q branch joint operation while he was on way to Tiruchy airport carrying a digital dossier on south Indian defence installations, in the third week of September. He was scheduled to catch a flight to Colombo the day he was arrested. Though he was the first Pakistani spy to be arrested in Tamil Nadu in the recent past, the NIA team has not filed a chargesheet in the case. “The investigation was extended after we arrested Arun Selvarajan. The probe is not yet over,” NIA sources said.
The NIA has already filed a chargesheet in the Sakir Hussian spy case. Sakir, a Lankan used to visit south India as a trader, and was assigned to collect details of US and Israeli missions in Chennai and Bengaluru by his handlers based in the Pakistani high commission in Colombo.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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