Suspected ISI agents in police custody till December 14

Three suspected agents of Pakistan's ISI, who were arrested by police here, were on Monday sent to police custody till December 14 by a court here.

Charged with offences of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India among others, the trio of Irshad Ansari, his son Asfaq Ansari and kin Mohammad Jahangir were remanded in police custody till December 14 by the metropolitan magistrate's court.

The trio was arrested on Sunday by the Special Task Force (STF) from Kolkata's Ekbalpore area for allegedly spying for the Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI).

Besides incriminating documents, fake Indian currency notes of face value Rs.5 lakh were seized from them.

Sleuths also seized hand-drawn maps from one of the accused, Irshad Ansari, who worked as a contractual labourer for defence PSU GRSE, which builds warships for the Indian Navy.

Meanwhile, security in and around GRSE has been beefed up and the shipyard is looking into Irshad's antecedents.

"Security was always tight around the GRSE. But in the wake of this incident, it has been beefed up. While police are conducting their own investigation, we are looking into the antecedents of Irshad," GRSE CMD A.K. Verma said.

Meanwhile, the arrests have also taken political colour with Asfaq said to be an activist of the Trinamool Congress's students wing.

"Besides Asfaq being a Trinamool student leader, Irshad was also a union leader for the Trinamool. Under Trinamool, Bengal has become a safe haven for terrorists," alleged BJP national secretary S.N. Singh.

Trinamool Chhatra Parishad state secretary Akash Rudra has asserted that Asfaq was no more an activist of the TMCP and was suspended as the general secretary of a city college a few months back.