Lucknow: A court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Lucknow has sentenced two persons to six years' imprisonment for allegedly passing confidential information of the Indian Army to Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Judge Vivekananda Sharan Tripathi of the special NIA court has convicted Rashid Ahmed, a resident of Chandauli and Rajak Bhai Kumbhar of Gujarat's West Kutch.
The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested Rashid Ahmed from Varanasi in January 2020. After which, he was taken to the ATS headquarters in Lucknow for interrogation. Pakistani phone numbers and confidential photographs were recovered from his mobile phone.
During which, Rashid told that he used to work for ISI and put up posters and banners for his living. In 2018, he visited his aunt in Karachi, where he came in contact with ISI agents. After returning, he started sending pictures of India's vital places, Army installations and military bases.
ATS also recovered a mobile phone from Rashid's possession and it was revealed that he had purchased two SIM cards, through which WhatsApp was being operated from Pakistan. Rashid had sent OTPs to his Pakistan-based ISI bosses to initiate WhatsApp on these two numbers following which, these numbers were being used for espionage.
An FIR was registered by Ritesh Kumar Singh, a constable of the UP ATS. According to which, Rashid, a resident of Chandauli, was in contact with ISI and was sending sensitive and confidential information related to the Army and photographs of the movements of the security forces to the Pakistan intelligence agency.
This apart, Rajak Bhai Kumbhar, a resident of Gujarat's West Kutch, was also convicted by the NIA court on similar charges. Rajak has been accused of conspiring with Rashid and other agents based in Pakistan for sharing information of the Indian Army.
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