Court extends judicial custody of Madhuri Gupta by 3 days

Link Magistrate Geetanjali extended Gupta's judicial custody till July 24 as the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate was on leave. The court is likely to take cognisance of the chargesheet on July 24. Delhi Police had on Tuesday chargesheeted the IFS Grade-B officer for passing secret information to Pakistan's ISI during her posting in Islamabad.

The over 700-page chargesheet and annexures filed before Chief Metropolitan had sought the prosecution of the officer under various provisions of the Official Secrets Act and the Indian Penal Code. The probe agency, citing Gupta's purported e-mails in the chargesheet, claimed that she used to pass on information to Pakistan intelligence agencies through her handler Jamshed whom she planned to marry and Mubshar Raza Rana.

"The contents of an email showed that she was in love with Jim (Jamshed). Both had planned to get married. It is further very clear from the content that Jim is a Pakistani. The motive is clear and established from the email," the chargesheet said.

The police, in the chargesheet, had claimed that she got in touch with Rana and Jamshed after her introduction to them by Javed Rashid, a journalist of 'Jung' newspaper. Rana created an email ID for her and asked her to send information to a particular email ID, the chargesheet said and also referred to recovery of two mobile phones from her possession besides one sim card and a Blackberry having a Pakistani sim card, the police alleged.

Police has cited 30 witnesses to buttress the charges against Gupta. Earlier, when Gupta was arrested in April, police had alleged that she was given Rs one lakh for allegedly passing secret information to ISI agents.

Gupta, 53, posted as second secretary, Press and Information at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was arrested on April 22 by the Delhi police's Special Cell on the charges of revealing classified information to Pakistani officials.