STF arrests 3 over ‘ISI links’, two of them ‘TMC workers’

Giving details, an STF officials said all the three arrested are residents of the city’s Garden Reach area. Besides recovering several documents revealing their links to the ISI, the STF also seized fake indian currency notes with a face value Rs 2 lakh from Irshad and Rs 1.5 lakh each from Asfaq and Jahangir, the official added.

“A hand-drawn map of the GRSE and the Netaji Subhas Dock were seized from Irshad who has been working with the warship building company for quite some time. We are investigating his intention and whether or not he had passed on the maps of any other sensitive area to the Pakistani agency,” the officer said.
They have been booked under the IPC sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging or attempting to wage war against the Government of India) and 489B (using as genuine forged or counterfeit currency notes or bank notes) among otehrs.

Sources in the Kolkata Police said primary investigation revealed that both Irshad and Jahangir have relatives in Karachi and were “hired” by the ISI “as their agents” during their visit to the neighbouring country.

“Both have been working as ISI agents for over ten years and their primary job was to pass on information from India. We are further investigating their roles,” STF deputy commissioner Akhilesh Kumar Chaturvedi said.

The officer said the information regarding the country’s defence was passed on to the ISI, electronically and manually, by the accused. “They were using WhatsApp, sometimes emails and at times manually passed on the information,” he said, adding that several visits to Bangladesh were made by the accused in recent times. The role of Asfaq is yet to be ascertained, an officer said.

Asked whether the persons had any connection with the suspected Pakistani agent arrested by the Uttar Pradesh STF in Meerut on Friday, the officer said: “We cannot neglect that. We will get in touch with the UP STF.”

Sources, however, said the person arrested in UP, Mohammad Eizaz who changed his name to Mohammad Kalam in India, was given shelter by Irshad at his Garden Reach home.

“Irshad had helped Kalam obtain fake documents such as a voter ID card with a Bareilly address and an Aadhaar card.”

Significantly, UP STF officials had told The Indian Express Friday that Eizaz had admitted to have been introduced to Mohammad Irshad, arrested on Saturday. “Irshad helped Eizaz with fake documents through one of his relatives Jahangir, a resident of Kolkata,” the UP STF had said after Eizaz’s arrest.
Eizaz, on Saturday, was remanded to 14 days’ judicial custody by the special court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Sanjay Singh in Meerut. The Meerut’s Sadar police, too, has sought his remand for seven days for interrogation, for which a hearing would be held in the court on Monday, ATS Circle Officer Ankit Kumar said.

Eizaz — a resident of Taramadi Chowk at Irfanabad in Islamabad — was arrested when he was on his way to Delhi. Documents related to Indian Army, Pakistani identity proof, fake voter identity of West Bengal, fake Aadhaar card with a Bareilly district address, Delhi Metro card, laptop, and pen drives were found on him.
Meanwhile, family members of the three alleged that the Kolkata Police has “cooked up” a case since all three had been reported “missing” since Thursday morning. Family members claimed to have lodged a “missing diary” with the Garden Reach Police Station Thursday night itself. “We just have relatives in Pakistan whom we visit sometimes,” a family member, who declined to be named, said.

The police also said they are investigating if the three arrested had any connection with suspected ISI agents Akhtar and Jaffar Khan, who had been arrested a few weeks ago.

PTI inputs