CID unearths ISI spying racket in Himachal; 2 held

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HimVani

Shimla (Jan 31): Himachal Pradesh Crime Investigation Department has busted an alleged spying racket inn Himachal Pradesh with the arrest of two ISI agents who were active in supplying sensitive formations about Indian Armed forces installations to their operatives in lieu of money being supplied to them through hawala racket.

Addressing media persons here today, Himachal Pradesh additional director general of police (CID) ID Bhandari disclosed that the state agency has registered a case of spying under sections 35 & 39 of Indian Official Secret Act and two persons have been arrested while the third is likely to be taken into custody.

Giving detail about the racket, he said that on a tip off a person identified as a retired ex-servicemen from Indian Army, Bhagwan Dass, son of Bitu Ram, working as a compounder in the animal husbandry department at Jawalamukhi, was working for ISI by revealing sensitive information about cantonment and closed areas of Army and got Rs 6,000 and later Rs 5,000 payment for it through the hawala channel.

After the tip off, Bhagwan Dass was tracked down by a team of CID and search warrants were issued against him on January 27, 2011.
The ADGP said that the accused was getting telephone calls from ISI handlers, which were intercepted by CID. Bhagwan Singh got payments through one Rajesh Kumar of Chandigarh and Amarik Singh Gulati of Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh.

Bhagwan Dass got Rs 6,000 from Rajesh of Chandigarh, who in turn got it from one Sanjay from the Raksal branch of PNB in Champaron district of Bihar (closed to Nepal border). When the police tried to identify Sanjay, his identity could not established from bank records and now CID is scanning CCTV footage to nab him, Bhandari said.

But CID successfully nabbed key hawala operator Amrick Singh Gulati, who transferred Rs 5,000 to Bhagawan Singh. Amrick Singh was getting Hawala money from Thailand and Hong Kong. During interrogation Amrick Singh reportedly accepted his involvement in hawala transactions and his account transactions revealed transactions amounting more than Rs 1 crore. He, however, showed ignorance that he was being used by ISI.

After scanning the account of Amaraik Singh, CID got another vital clue that hawala money was being supplied to other retired Army personal in lieu of getting sensitive information about armed installations.

Bhandari said that Amarick Singh had transferred Rs 1 crore to retired Capt. Shyam Singh Guleria, a resident of Chandimandir Malcot village, in his bank account at Gudjangli area, which is very close to Indian Army center at Chandimandir.

CID found out that ISI was accessing sensitive information from retired Army men, who where being contacted in the name of ex-servicemen welfare. He warned that this racket was spreading its tentacle in other states as money was being pumped by ISI into dozen of accounts through hawala.

He denied that Rs 1.25 crore recovered from two persons at Mehatpur barrier of Una on Thursday was linked to spying.

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