Pakistan espionage case: Jodhpur based passport and visa agent arrested

Police has arrested a Jodhpur-based passport and visa agent allegedly involved in the espionage ring run by a Pakistani High Commission official.

After getting a tip-off, police had on Wednesday nabbed Pakistan High Commission official Mehmood Akhtar along with two Indians identified as Maulana Ramzan and Subhash Jangir at Delhi Zoo while the visa agent Shoaib had managed to escape.

Shoaib was detained near Jodhpur last evening and after being brought here, he was arrested, a senior police officer said today.

While Akhtar was yesterday declared persona non grata, Subhash and Maulana has been arrested on charges of sharing of sensitive information and defence documents and deployment details of BSF along the Indo-Pak border. They were sent to 12-day police custody.

It was found that Shoaib was responsible for recruiting Subhash and Maulana in the module.

Shoaib had come in contact with Maulana around one-and-a-half years back and lured him into activities of collecting vital information about the installations of army and paramilitary forces in Gujarat and Rajasthan, the officer said.

"We had sent a request to Jodhpur Police about detaining Shoaib and yesterday evening he was detained," said the officer.

Shoaib's questioning is likely to reveal information about other spies in the racket.