Suspected ISI agent arrested from Meerut: police

A suspected agent of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence was arrested in Uttar Pradesh's Meerut district today on the charge of passing defence information to ISI, a senior police officer said.

Acting on a tip-off, the Special Task Force of the Uttar Pradesh Police arrested Asif Ali from Subash Bazar area while he was passing information relating to the Indian Army to ISI, STF DSP Anil Kumar said.

A number of important documents were recovered from him, he said, adding during interrogation, Ali confessed he was an ISI agent.

Pass books and debit cards of Indian and Pakistani banks were recovered from him, the DSP said.

Ali's interrogation brought out that his wife and children are staying in Pakistan while he was living in a rented accommodation in Delhi Gate locality in Meerut, Kumar said.

In Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh Additional Director General of Police (Law and Order) Mukul Goel said preliminary investigations showed Ali was passing information about Indian Army to ISI.

He got married in Pakistan and had two children there, the police officer said, adding "he used to go there on the pretext of meeting his family".

Goel said during one of these visits seven to eight years ago he came in contact with some ISI officials.

"Since then he has been involved in this activity," he said.

Maps, a cheque of Pakistan's Al Habeeb Bank, a passport and some mobile phones were recovered from Asif's possession, the ADGP said.

During interrogation, the agent said in the past he had transferred money in the accounts of a retired JCO and a JCO, according to the STF.

The agent revealed ISI officer Zahid had provided him with a debit card which was used to withdrawn money in India.

"The money was later paid to army officers in lieu of information," the STF said.

Asif told his interrogators that after returning from Pakistan in May this year, he bought a laptop which he gave to the son of an army officer at Babina in Jhansi and about whose ID he had given to Zahid.

Regarding documents recovered from his possession, the agent said he was about to mail them after scanning to ISI officers in Pakistan but was caught.