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| Madhuri visited area close to LoC in Rajouri, stayed with doctor couple | | Couple quizzed, say the diplomat is known to them through a Delhi doctor | |
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Apr 29: Diplomat Madhuri Gupta, arrested on the charges of spying for the Pak ISI, had last month visited a doctor couple at Sunderbani, a town close to the Line of Control (LoC), in Rajouri. She was in the house of Dr Khem Raj Sharma and Dr Champa Sharma at Sunderbani for two days, ie on March 29 and 30, according to top official sources.
Intelligence agencies were now trying to find out if she had come to the border Sunderbani area on an espionage mission. They feel she could have been tasked by ISI to see with her own eyes
the presence of army troops in Jammu, Sunderbani and on the about 50-km Jammu-Sunderbani road.
"She could be on a spying mission otherwise why should she visit a remote area like Sunderbani which is not even a famed place of tourist attraction?" sources said. The agencies were also busy in finding out if she had taken photographs of army pickets, units and other vital installations in Jammu, Sunderbani and on the Jammu-Sunderbani road.
The doctor couple figured in Madhuri's interrogation in New Delhi yesterday evening after which officials of various intelligence agencies thronged their Sunderbani residence to quiz them.
Sources said a team of officials went to the doctor couple's house late last evening and questioned them for nearly two hours. During questioning, Dr Champa told interrogators that diplomat
Madhuri had visited their residence on March 29 for two days after crossing from Pakistan via Wagha border in a Toyota vehicle registered in Pakistan.
Another close friend of theirs Dr Prem Lata had also come to their residence during the same time. She said the diplomat and Dr Lata had visited several places, including a temple, in Sunderbani in their car.
The lady doctor said Madhuri had left for Pakistan on April 30 and later Dr Lata too left for her residence in Delhi. During their stay, officials of the Military Intelligence (MI) had visited their residence to verify the details of the vehicle in which Madhuri had come.
Champa also told the interrogators that she knew Madhuri through her friend Dr Lata, her batchmate at Lady Harding Medical College in Delhi.
She said they used to call each other but no e-mails were exchanged between them. Champa had opened an e-mail account 10-15 days back, the sources added.Referring to the army officer whose name figured during the investigation, sources said the officer, posted in Meerut, was brother of Dr Champa. He is of the rank of Major General. Her another brother, now dead, was DIG in central industrial security force.
The couple cooperated with the investigation but their involvement seemed negligible, the sources added."We do not have exact information on the kind of relationship the diplomat had with the doctor couple," the sources added. "At some stage, it will be investigated," sources said.Meanwhile, sources in New Delhi said investigations into the espionage case had begun to centre on gathering evidence to reveal the real identities of Madhuri's Pakistani handlers.
Sources alleged that Madhuri, a Grade-B IFS officer, had been receving large chunks of cash from the ISI which she deposited in a Pakistani bank and then transfered it to Indian banks as regular pay
offs received from the Pak intelligence agency.Madhuri, a second secretary level diplomat in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was likely considered a 'high value asset' by the ISI as she had access to the upper echelons of the Indian diplomatic establishment.
She could have been roped in by the ISI for having access to secret information as regards India's official policy towards Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Sources said enough evidence must necessarily be uncovered that supported these allegations.
Sources said Madhuri had confessed to passing on Indian state secrets to ISI for about two years since she joined the High Commission in Islamabad.
Following her arrest, a senior Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) official has come under the scanner for allegedly passing information to her. According to sources, R K Sharma, the RAW station head in Islamabad, was under radar for allegedly passing on vital information to Madhuri.
The government has also cracked down on other Indian staffers posted in the Indian High Commission in the last three years. Meanwhile, more facts have emerged on the issue. Sources revealed that Madhuri allegedly had four contacts in Pakistan, who were introduced to her by her ISI handler.
She allegedly met her contact at Cafe Iffy restaurant in Markaz Super Market, also called Jinnah Market, in Islamabad in January this year.
Madhuri last worked in India as assistant director in Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), Sapru House. In her interrogation, Madhuri said she did not indulge in spying for the sake of money but to settle scores with some officers, sources said and added she was bitter because after having worked in the foreign ministry for 30 years, she had been promoted to the Indian Foreign Services Group B cadre only last year.
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