New Delhi: After a Pakistan High Commission staffer, Mehmood Akhtar was detained for his involvement in an ISI spy ring, another spy, Shoaib, the Jodhpur-based passport and visa agent allegedly involved in espionage racket, was detained near his home town on Thursday evening, police said.
Earlier, a Pakistan High Commission official, Mehmood Akhtar, was detained for his alleged involvement in an espionage racket involving sharing of sensitive defence documents and deployment details of BSF along the Indo-Pak border with Pakistani spy agency ISI.
Two people, identified as Maulana Ramzan and Subhash Jangir were also arrested for sharing sensitive information and defence documents and deployment details of BSF along the Indo-Pak border with Pakistani spy agency ISI.
"He (Shoaib) was responsible for recruiting Subhash and Maulana in the module. He was detained near Jodhpur today evening," said Ravindra Yadav, joint commissioner of police(Crime).
Shoaib had come in contact with Maulana around one-and-a-half year back, who lured the latter to join him in collecting vital information about the installations of army and para-military forces in Gujarat and Rajasthan, the officer said.
Yesterday, after getting a tip-off about the presence of Akhtar along with Shoaib, Ramzan and Jangir at Delhi Zoo, the police had nabbed Akhtar along with Ramzan and Jangir but Shoaib had managed to escape, said the officer.
"We had sent a request to Jodhpur Police about detaining Shoaib and today evening he was detained. He will be brought to Delhi soon," said the officer.
Shoaib's questioning is likely to reveal about the network of other spies who were recruited in the module.
Police has also got to know Nagaur-based Ramzan used to recruit locals which included army and para-military forces personnel to pass on information/documents, said Yadav.
He had introduced Subhash as a para-military officer to Mehmood for getting high money for sharing of important documents, police said.
Ramzan and Subhash are residents of Rajasthan's Nagore. Ramzan had introduced Subhash to Akhtar as a paramilitary officer for minting hefty amount of money as well as to show that information being received is credible, Yadav said.
During interrogation, Akhtar told police that he is on deputation to Pak ISI since January 2013 and is a serving Hawaldar of 40 Baloch Regiment of Pakistan army, the officer said adding he is native of village Kahuta, Rawalpindi district.
Sources said more people in the Pakistani High Commission may be involved in the case.
On possible involvement of BSF personnel, they said, "The documents that were recovered from them couldn't have been procured without the help of someone privy to such sensitive information. We are suspecting that they were aided by some BSF personnel who leaked the information and documents to them.
"We are investigating that aspect. We have identified some of the officers involved and we will be conducting a raid soon."
It is also suspected that he lured many people into the spying ring by offering them good money and that there was a honey trap at play to lure people, said another officer in the probe team.
"Since Akhtar was working in the visa department, it gave easy access to him to identify people who could work for him as spies. People who were financially weak would be lured by promise of getting big money," he said.
The officer said the honey trap angle was also being explored. "From initial investigation, it has been revealed that some girls were exploited after being promised good money and were used to lure men into the module. We are investigating this aspect," he added.
Police has also recovered the mobile phones of Maulana and Jangir, who were sharing information and documents with Akhtar.
"It has been found that they used to mostly communicate through whatsapp calls as they are not recorded. We cannot procure the call detail records of calls made through whatsapp.
"On normal phone calls, their conversations would mostly happen through codewords and we were studying the pattern in the last six months," said the senior police officer.
Akhtar would meet Maulana and Jangir once every month in Delhi where they would give documents to him and he would pay them a high amount in return.
During interrogation, they didn't reveal the amount for leaking information but it is suspected to be in the range of Rs 30,000-Rs 50,000, he said.
