Cops zero in on dilpomat email trail

Madhuri Gupta, the diplomat accused of spying, would create a new email id every time she had to pass on information to her Pakistani handler, sources said.

Madhuri Gupta, the diplomat accused of spying, would create a new email id every time she had to pass on information to her Pakistani handler, sources said.

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Gupta, an IFS-B officer posted at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad for the past three years, had met her handler Mudassar Rana, an intelligence officer with the Pakistan civil police, on seven occasions.

Police sources said she had been given a separate SIM card to make calls to Rana.

“The main task at our hand is to get hold of all the email ids she had created to send the information to her handler Mudassar Rana. We have got her computer from Pakistan and sent it to the forensic laboratory. She has several email ids,” said a senior police officer.

In some of Gupta’s meetings with Rana, a person identified as Jamshed was also present.

Gupta, who completed her research in Urdu from Jawaharlal Nehru University, used to translate content from the Urdu press and pass them on to Rana as “classified information”. The police described Gupta as “well-read and articulate”, who did not show any sign of “repentance” during interrogation.

Gupta was produced before a judge on Saturday. After the five-minute hearing, she came out smiling. The Delhi court turned down the investigators’ plea for further custodial interrogation and sent Gupta to 14 days’ judicial custody.