‘ISI mole’ part of sleeper cell, says police

An alleged operative of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Mohammad Parvez, 42, was arrested for alleged anti-national activities and was in judicial custody since 2017, police said.

An alleged operative of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Mohammad Parvez, who was on Monday sent to the custody of Rajasthan police for allegedly honey-trapping army jawans in January this year, was possibly a member of a sleeper cell module operating in Delhi, the police said on Tuesday. Parvez was arrested by the National Investigation Agency in 2017.

An alleged operative of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Mohammad Parvez, who was on Monday sent to the custody of Rajasthan police for allegedly honey-trapping army jawans in January this year, was possibly a member of a sleeper cell module operating in Delhi, the police said on Tuesday. (Burhaan Kinu/HT File PHOTO)

They said they suspected Parvez was acting at the behest of the Pakistan’s intelligence agency. Parvez’s family members, however, refuted the allegations of him having links with the ISI. They said he was being framed because he regularly visits his sisters in Pakistan.

Parvez, 42, was arrested for alleged anti-national activities and was in judicial custody since 2017, police said. Additional director general (Intelligence) Umesh Mishra said on Monday, “Parvez was brought to Jaipur for interrogation, following which we arrested him and demanded his custody to interrogate him for honey-trapping Indian Army soldiers. Two of his aides were arrested by us on January 31 this year from Delhi.”

“Parvez had honey-trapped an army jawan in Jaipur in January this year using a fake identity. He collected confidential and strategic information and passed it on to the ISI. We have learnt that Pervez also acted as a visa agent in Pakistan. He had also fraudulently procured Indian SIM cards and passed it on to his contacts in Pakistan which they used to call Indian soldiers,” Mishra said.

A senior police officer from Jaipur said Parvez was a member of a sleeper cell module in Delhi and was acting on commands of the ISI operatives. “He is in four-day police custody and we will interrogate him to trace his other contacts,” the officer said on the condition of anonymity.

Police said the man Parvez visited Pakistan 17 times in past 18 years. Parvez’s wife, however, said that he came on the police radar only for visiting her sisters regularly in Pakistan.

She said, since her husband’s arrest she has changed three houses because she could not pay the rent. “Had he been helping any agency and was being funded for that, we would not be in such a condition. I am left behind to take care of four children and an ageing mother-in-law,” said Zakia, Parvez’s wife.

She said her husband was a roadside vendor who sold artificial jewellery and later started a garment business. Zakia,a housewife, lives in Delhi’s Chandni Mahal area with her four kids.

Parvez’s lawyer Akram Khan said that so far his role has only been proven in obtaining SIM cards fraudulently. “He shall be charged only with forging documents and not under the Official Secrets Act,” Khan said.