NIA Court Convicts Husband, Wife In Naval Espionage Case

NIA Court sentenced Abdul Rehman and his wife Qaiser in Naval espionage case to five and half years of imprisonment and fine of Rs 5,000.

New Delhi:A man and his wife have been convicted and sentenced to simple imprisonment by the NIA special court, Visakhapatnam, in the high-profile Naval espionage case linked with Pakistani intelligence agencies, according to an official statement.

The court sentenced Abdul Rehman and his wife Shaista Qaiser to five and a half years of simple imprisonment and a fine of Rs 5,000, it said. They will have to undergo an additional one-year imprisonment in case of default in payment of fine, the court ordered in its judgement, pronounced after the two pleaded guilty, said the statement issued by the NIA.

The two accused were arrested between December 2019 and June 2020 in the case in which 15 accused have so far been arrested and chargesheeted by the NIA. The NIA investigations revealed that Rehman and Qaiser had operated as agents of foreign intelligence agencies involved in anti-India espionage activities, it said.

They had connected with Pakistani agents via their Pakistani relatives and had visited the country between August 14, 2018 and September 1, 2018, the statement said.

Acting on directions of the Pakistani agents, they had used various online money transfer Points of Sale (PoS) to transfer funds into accounts of other accused persons for leaking sensitive defence information detrimental to India’s security, it said.

The case relates to sharing of sensitive information about the Indian defence establishments at Karwar Naval Base and Kochi Naval Base.