An espionage racket involving passing of sensitive information to Pakistani intelligence agencies has been busted with the arrest here of a senior woman diplomat posted in the Indian High Commission in Islamabad.
IFS-B officer Madhuri Gupta who was second secretary in the mission, was arrested here last week after she was summoned by Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the pretext of discussions over the Saarc summit, being held in Thimpu, official sources said.
“We had reasons to believe that an official in the High Commission of India in Pakistan had been passing information to Pakistani intelligence agencies,” they added.
“The matter is under investigation. The official is cooperating with our investigating agencies,” MEA spokesman Vishnu Prakash said in Thimpu.
Officials said this could be the first time that a woman official of the Foreign Service has been arrested for allegedly spying for Pakistan and that too during her posting there.
The 53-year-old official came under the scanner after she showed ‘extra-ordinary’ interest in areas beyond her role in the information wing of the mission, the sources said.
Central security agencies then involved senior MEA officials by briefing them about her activities in Pakistan which included supplying of sensitive and classified documents related to Indian activities in that country and Afghanistan, official sources said.