Man held for profiling diplomats, journalists

Police claim ‘mole’ passed on sensitive information to ‘neighbouring country’; arrested with classified army papers.

A 37-year-old man was arrested for allegedly ‘passing on sensitive information to a neighbouring country’ and profiling Indian diplomats and journalists stationed abroad, the crime branch said on Wednesday.

Identified as Zubair Khan, who hails from UP’s Badayun, the ‘mole’ was picked-up from southeast Delhi’s Kalindi Kunj on Tuesday night with scores of angry resident ‘gheraoing’ the local police station in protest on Wednesday morning.

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“He was arrested on a specific tip-off that he was passing on sensitive information to a neighbouring country. He has been sent to two days’ remand after being arrested under the Official Secrets Act,” said Sanjay Kumar Jain, DCP (crime).

According to sources, Khan, who was working as an apprentice at a local property dealer’s shop, had been tasked to gather background information about journalists who wanted to be posted in Pakistan as well diplomats and scribes posted there.

“Khan’s handlers would meet him or seek information from him over the phone. When we arrested him, several classified documents of the Indian Army as well as some intelligence agencies were recovered from his possession,” said an officer.

Residents, terming the operation as ‘yet another witch-hunt against youths of a particular community’, protested outside the Jamia Nagar Police Station.

Khan was remanded in two-day police custody after he was produced in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Yaduvanshi.

The magistrate said: "Custodial interrogation of the accused is required not only to apprehend the co-conspirators but also to interrogate him in detail to unearth the whole conspiracy pursuant to which the accused was stated to have been found in possession of documents which are secret documents pertaining to the Indian army."