Indian Foreign Affair

[ramana]

Times of India reports:

Only 'routine' info passed to teach IFS officers a lesson, says Gupta

TNN, Apr 29, 2010, 12.16am IST





NEW DELHI: Madhuri Gupta, the Indian diplomat accused of spying for Pakistan, has apparently told her interrogators that she passed on only "routine" information to her Pakistani handler as she was keen to teach IFS officers a lesson for treating her shabbily. <img src='http://www.india-forum.com/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />



Government sources said it would have been difficult for an official of her rank to pass on “sensitive” information.



Investigators have identified 53-year-old Gupta's handler as Mudassar Rana, a Pakistani internal intelligence official, who is not from ISI. Gupta, however, admitted that she knew Rana as a Pakistani army captain with ISI links. She denied any physical relationship with her handler.



Gupta's questioning also threw up five more names with whom she was in touch. Gupta was introduced to 56-year-old Rana by one of her journalist friends in Pakistan. Well versed in Sufism and Urdu, Gupta was on study leave at JNU before her Islamabad posting where she did research in Urdu language.



Gupta's main task was to monitor and record daily reporting in the Urdu press. She used to prepare a daily report and send it to her superiors. These reports and other details of the Indian mission's activities were being passed on to Rana for the past two years, said a senior official.



Isnt what is being monitored also valuable information"



Gupta was also tasked with keeping tabs on Urdu media reports on the arrest of LeT operatives David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana, both accused in the 26/11 attacks of Mumbai.



Officials said Gupta used to meet her contact in Markaz Super Market, also called Jinnah Market, and IFFI Cafe in Islamabad. Sources said that a few months back, another official posted at the Islamabad mission was called back by the MEA after Gupta's role came under the scanner. This official, who is believed to be under the watch of intelligence officials, will soon be questioned by Delhi Police.



Sources also claimed that Gupta, a Grade-B officer, had been receiving large amounts of money from the ISI which she deposited in a Pakistani bank and then transferred to Indian banks. After Gupta's arrest, another senior Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) official has come under the scanner for allegedly passing information to her.



Interestingly, Gupta has accused RAW station chief R K Sharma of being a spy. This apparently has prevented authorities from giving Sharma a clean chit. Sources, however, said it was Sharma who had first brought to light Gupta's association with Rana and the possibility that she might have been giving information to him. Sharma first disclosed this to officials in the Indian mission about five months ago.



Sharma admitted that he initially became friendly with Gupta but later got suspicious as she started to insist on acquiring information on India's intelligence operations in Pakistan.



Could be hell hath no fury than a woman scorned?



While authorities are examining Gupta's email accounts and call details, government sources maintained that it would have been very difficult for her to hand over sensitive information to her handler. They denied that any sensitive information pertaining to India's operations in Afghanistan could have been passed on to the ISI operative.



"One possibility is that she told her handler all information which she gathered from documents which she was given to translate in Urdu. However, it was mostly related to appointments, travel schedule and public dealings of the high commission. We believe not much has been lost even though she did have some information which a person of her rank should not have had," said a highly placed government official. Gupta also denied that she made any attempt to bug offices in the high commission by planting transmitting devices.



So the GOI is supposed to believe her? Why would she implicate herself? Also did she pass on who was whoi Kabul to the TSP? She would know from her appointments and travel schedules?





Meanwhile, an Indian army officer is also said to be under the scanner for links with Gupta, but this is not confirmed. Gupta is said to have been in touch with the officer who belongs to Rajouri in J&K and also his relatives with whom she purportedly exchanged emails.



Gupta had worked as assistant director with ICWA at Sapru House. She had earlier served in the Indian mission in Baghdad, Serbia, Kuala Lumpur and Croatia, said an official.

The link to JNU which jellifies the mind and makes one see friends where only enemies abound!