Lucknow: An Indian man was sentenced to five years and three months imprisonment for spying and leaking vital information related to the army to the Pakistani Intelligence agency ISI.
A special court of the National Investigation Agency (NIA)-Anti Terror Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh Police sentenced Aftab Ali, a resident of Faizabad to rigorous imprisonment and also imposed a penalty of Rs 4,800 on him. According to the statement issued by ATS on Sunday, Aftab was arrested in 2017 for leaking information regarding the movement and deployment of the army to his handler in ISI.
During the investigation, it was also revealed that the ISI's modus operandi was to lure Indians whose relatives are in Pakistan with money and promise to get them married to work for the agency as spies. After confirming the information, the ATS arrested Aftab on March 3, 2017. A case of forgery, criminal conspiracy along with Indian Penal Code (IPC), Official Secrets Act, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act was lodged against him at ATS police station in Lucknow.
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During the investigation, it was revealed that Aftab was in contact with Meharban Ali, an officer in the Pakistani Embassy in New Delhi. It may be noted that Meharban Ali was sent back to Pakistan on charges of spying. Money was deposited in Aftab's account through a hawala trader. Investigations revealed that on May 9, 2016, Aftab went to Karachi (Pakistan) through Atari border and came back to India on June 28. Since then he was in constant touch with the Pakistani high commission.
An ATS spokesman said that Aftab used to give information regarding movement of the army, deployment of battalions, time of regiments moving through trains, number of army platoons in Amritsar, and other information against the security interests of the state in code language on phone. He was instructed to transmit information related to the military through WhatsApp and email.
Based on the ATS's investigation Aftab Ali admitted to his crime before the special NIA-ATS court after which the court convicted him while pronouncing separate punishments in separate sections totaling 5 years and 3 months of rigorous imprisonment.
