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| Madhuri Gupta's trail: Sr army officer, Rajouri couple under radar | | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 28: In a new dimension to the sensational case of an Indian woman diplomat-turned-spy arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan, a high-ranking army officer, a RAW official of Rajouri and his wife have come under the scanner of security agencies.
The diplomat, 53-year-old Madhuri Gupta, who was alleged to be having a Godfather in external affairs ministry, continued to be grilled in detention today about the information she was suspected to have passed on to Pak intelligence agencies.
A promotee officer, she was arrested six days ago in New Delhi after being called back from Islamabad where she was posted as second secretary.
During Gupta's interrogation and earlier surveillance, security agencies stumbled upon a vital information about her alleged links with a senior army officer, a RAW official of Rajouri and his wife.
Highly-placed official sources said the Rajouri couple was in regular touch through e-mail and telephone with the arrested diplomat in Islamabad. The RAW official's wife had gone to Pakistan
several times.
Sources said the senior army officer used to visit the Rajouri couple while he was posted there. He was related to the couple but his frequent visits to them had aroused suspicion of the security
agencies, the sources added.
Some of the e-mails exchanged between Gupta and the Rajouri woman were part of the documents being held as evidence against the diplomat, who was in the custody of the Delhi Police Special Cell. The role of the RAW official was also being investigated as it was
suspected that Gupta might have been taking information from him. However, it was not immediately clear whether he knew the woman officer's real designs.
He could be picked up for questioning by the security agencies, the sources added. Gupta, who belongs to IFS-B service, is the first official of the Foreign Service who had been arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan.
Gupta was said to have been under surveillance of Indian security agencies for about four months before it was decided to arrest her. She was called to Delhi last week on the pretext of discussion over SAARC summit being held at Thimpu. Security agencies briefed senior
external ministry officials about her alleged activities in Pakistan which included supplying of sensitive and classified documents related to Indian interests in Pakistan and Afghanistan, the sources said.
Gupta had been extensively questioned by sleuths of Intelligence Bureau and Delhi Police officials during which she claimed she used to obtain sensitive information within the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
Sources said the woman diplomat had been allegedly passing information related to policy matters and movement of Indian officials to a Pakistani intelligence man identified as "Rana".
A promotee officer of ministry of external affairs, Gupta was working in the Mission for nearly three years and reportedly told the investigators that she had been passing information since 2008. She was well versed in Urdu and her services were utilised for translation and interpretation. Earlier, she had a posting in the Indian Mission in Kuala Lumpur and worked with the 'India Perspective', a magazine of the External Publicity wing of the
External Affairs Ministry.
Sources said after Gupta's arrest, a senior Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) official had come under the scanner for allegedly passing information to Gupta. R K Sharma, RAW's station head in Islamabad, was under the radar for allegedly passing on vital information to
the arretsed Indian Diplomat Madhuri Gupta.
It could not be known of Sharma was the same RAW official who hailed from Rajouri.
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