HC grants bail to 3 suspected ISI agents

The Bombay high court recently granted bail to three suspected ISI agents, convicted by a Pune court two years ago.

The Bombay high court recently granted bail to three suspected ISI agents, convicted by a Pune court two years ago.

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Justice BR Gavai granted bail to Mahim resident Afzal Daood Darvesh and two of his alleged associates, Imtiaz Razzak Dalal and Ziauddin Imamuddin Shaikh, on a bond of Rs25,000 with two sureties of the same amount.

Justice Gavai found nothing incriminating against them. "There is nothing on record, at least prima facie, to establish that the conduct or character of the trio was of such a nature that it would amount prejudicial to the interests or safety of the state," the judge said.

In May 2009, a magistrate court at Pune convicted the trio along with three others under various provisions of the Officials Secret Act, 1923, and sentenced them to seven years imprisonment.

According to the prosecution, Darvesh had allegedly passed on many secret documents containing sensitive information regarding Indian defence installations and the personal details of several army officers to the ISI. Shaikh was charged for arranging the stay of one of the moles in Pune and using somebody else's ration card to prepare a bogus ration card in his name. Dalal, from whom 16 passports were seized, was charged for sending women to Pakistan.