A personal assistant of Samajwadi Party’s Rajya Sabha Member Munawwar Saleem was arrested on Saturday by the Delhi Police in connection with the espionage racket in which a Pakistan High Commission diplomat was expelled from the country — the fourth arrest in the case.
Pakistan High Commission dimplat Mehmood Akhtar, expelled by India for spying, had named Munawwar Saleem’s personal assistant Farhat Khan as one of his “close associates” in the crime following which he was arrested, said the source.
A police source said a case was registered against Khan under relevant Sections 3 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
Also, sources revealed that Khan was in touch with a private secretary (PS) — an IAS officer — of a Union Cabinet Minister.
“During Akhtar’s questioning, which was videotaped, Khan’s name surfaced as one of his close associates in the espionage racket he was running, along with some other Pakistan High Commission staffers,” said a senior police officer.
Akhtar in the video purportedly named Khan, besides others, including Syed Farruq, Khadim Hussain, Shahid Iqbal and Iqbal Cheema, claiming that they were also “staffers” of the Pakistan High Commision. In the video, he also said he used to meet Khan at Mandi House Metro Station.
“Interrogation of Khan has revealed that he was in touch with a few Central Government officials who would pass him confidential documents pertaining to strategies, plans and orders of IAS officers and senior officials in the Defence Ministry.
Documents pertaining to pension plans and voluntary retirement schemes of senior officials in the Central Government was also passed on to Akhtar by Khan,” said the police official.
Khan was given huge sums of money in return for his favours and would also be supplied women occasionally by Akhtar with the help of accused Shoaib.
“I had appointed the PA a year back after due Parliamentary checks on his character verification. Till now, nobody has contacted me, but I am ready to extend all support during the probe. Apart from this, I don’t know him personally. Before working for me, he worked for former MP Munawwar Hasan for 10 years,” said MP Munvvar Saleem. Asserting that had he known about his activities he would have taken action sooner, MP Saleem said he wrote a letter to the Rajya Sabha secretariat to strip him of all facilities given to him as a PA with immediate effect.
“My love, respect and my dedication to the country is no inferior to that of soldiers,” he said.
Khan was also directly involved with Shoaib, Maulana Ramzan and Subhash Jangir, the three spies who have been arrested in the case so far.
On Saturday, the MP sacked Khan and said he regretted employing him. Khan was associated with four MPs during the last 20 years, said police, adding that they are also investigating the role of the MP in connection to the case as well.
A Crime Branch officer said Khan’s preliminary questioning has led to “certain revelations” that need to be further investigated.
Names of several other people allegedly involved in the racket have cropped up.
The Delhi Police is also trying to nab other members of the racket who, it believes, were in close contact with Pakistan High Commission staffer Akhtar who was caught receiving secret documents on October 26.
Two others, Maulana Ramzan and Subhash Jangir, residents of Nagaur, Rajasthan, were held along with Akhtar. Another accused Shoaib was detained in Jodhpur and brought to Delhi by police where he was arrested.
Meanwhile, Khan was sent to police custody for ten days by a Delhi court.
The investigating officer said the accused - allegedly working for an ISI spy ring - was produced before Duty Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg and remanded for custodial interrogation till November 8.
He said Khan has to be confronted with other arrested men to unearth the larger conspiracy and nab others.
During the proceedings, police alleged that more persons are likely to be apprehended and more documents and other evidence to be recovered with the help of the accused.