Indian spies arrested at home and abroad

LAHORE: Eight former Indian naval officers facing espionage allegations in Qatar have now been handed a death penalty in Doha on charges of spying for Israel, though this is not the first time these spies hailing from world’s largest democracy have brought sheer embarrassment for their country.

Research conducted by the “Jang Group and Geo Television Network” reveals that Indian spies and its key snooping agencies like the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) have been biting the dust for decades.

In recent history, on March 3, 2016, another former Indian Navy Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav (also spelled Kulbhushan Yadav alias Hussain Mubarak Patel), was arrested in Balochistan on charges of terrorism and spying for RAW.

On April 10, 2017, after he was sentenced to death by a Field General Court Martial in Pakistan, Indian foreign ministry alleged he had been “kidnapped from Iran and that his subsequent presence in Pakistan had never been explained credibly.”

However, on May 18, 2017, the Holland-based International Court of Justice stayed the execution pending the final judgment on the case, and on July 17, 2019, the court rejected India’s appeal for Jadhav’s release and ordered Pakistan to suspend the execution.

It ruled that Pakistan would have to review the entire process of trial and conviction of Kulbhushan and provide India with consular access. Pakistan granted consular access to India, once, though subsequent requests were denied.

Another Indian Army spy, Kashmir Singh, was arrested in 1973 on charges of espionage and smuggling. He had entered Pakistan in the guise of “Ibrahim” and admitted being employed for Rs400 a month back home. He was sentenced to death by a military court.

This verdict was upheld by a civil court between 1976 and 1977 and a mercy petition followed this, but to no avail. He spent 35 years in Pakistani prisons, before he was released with Presidential pardon by the-then Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf in March 2008.

Indian agent Sarabjit Singh was arrested by Pakistan in 1990. At the time, India said that its intoxicated citizen had strayed across the border while working in his field. He was arrested on charges of carrying out bombings in Faisalabad, Multan and Lahore which killed 14 Pakistani citizens.

He was later sentenced to death.

Another RAW operative, Ravindra Kaushik, was sent to Pakistan in 1975, where he got enrolled at Karachi University under the alias of Nabi Ahmad Shakir.

After graduation, Kaushik joined the Pakistan Army as a commissioned officer and got promoted to the rank of Major. During 1979-83, he passed on sensitive information to RAW.

His run as a spy ended when one of his colleagues was nabbed by Pakistani forces, only to blow Kaushik’s cover. He was incarcerated for 16 years and died in 2001 while imprisoned in Multan Jail after contracting tuberculosis.

Sheikh Shamim was arrested by Pakistani authorities in 1989 and was charged with spying for RAW, reported AFP. He was hanged in 1999.

In its April 28, 2010 edition, noted Indian media house “India Today” had reported that a diplomat, Madhuri Gupta, was arrested on charges of spying for Pakistan.

In May 2008, Manmohan Sharma, a senior Indian Embassy official in Beijing was called back to New Delhi for falling to the charms of a Chinese honey trap. “India Today” had gone on to write, “Manmohan, a senior RAW officer, was alleged to be in a romantic affair with his Chinese language teacher.

Indian authorities suspected the woman could be an informant of the Chinese government and gathered information about India’s moves and counter-moves on the border talks.

In October 2007, a 1975 batch Research and Analysis Service (RAS) officer Ravi Nair was called back from Hong Kong for his ‘friendship’ with a girl believed to be working for a Chinese spy agency. However, within a brief time Nair was again given a foreign posting in Colombo where the woman also came and allegedly started staying with him, raising suspicion.

The prestigious Indian newspaper noted that like any other intelligence agency, RAW officials also had a history of officials switching their loyalties to foreign agencies. It maintained, “The most infamous case which shook RAW out of reverie was that of Rabinder Singh who became a mole of American intelligence agency CIA and flew to the US despite being under RAW surveillance.

Singh initially worked with the Indian Army and held a very senior position with RAW handling Southeast Asia. By the time the agency sensed his affiliations, Singh escaped to the US through Nepal in 2004. The second blow came in 2006 with the discovery of another alleged CIA mole in India’s National Security Council Secretariat, which is part of the Prime Minister’s Office.

In the early 90s, an Indian Naval attache posted in Islamabad reportedly fell in love with a Pakistani woman working in the Military Nursing Service in Karachi. The attache was interrogated and then forced to resign.

In the early 1980s, another senior field officer of RAW had disappeared in London. As attache in Kathmandu, he was alleged to be liaising with foreign intelligence agencies.