Indian Cook Helped ISI Spy On Diplomat In Pak, Gave Critical Intel, Say Police
lucknow, May 24: Investigators on Wednesday arrested a man from Uttarakhand's Pithoragarh district on suspicion that he had bugged an Indian diplomat's house in Pakistan and provided intel to the country's spy agency ISI while working as a domestic help till last year.
Ramesh Singh was a cook at the residence of a senior officer with the Indian Embassy in Pakistan and exchanged crucial information with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI for money, the police said. He worked at the diplomat's house between 2015 and 2017.
"The house of the officer was bugged. The officer's devices (laptop and phone) were also bugged. It seems the ISI used temporary employees at the embassy involved in cleaning operations to get in touch with Ramesh," Anand Kumar, a senior police officer, said at a briefing in Lucknow on Thursday.
He used to go through the laptop, other electronic devices, diaries and files to pass on information to ISI agents, the police said.
"During his interrogation, we have learnt that ISI also tried to get information from Ramesh about military installations in UP," Mr Kumar added.
According to the police, Ramesh claimed he had agreed to work for the ISI to repay his debts and was paid in dollars. "We have found that Ramesh was under debt from banks and from money lenders. Ramesh says he was paid 1,300 dollars. He was in debt of about 8 to 9 lakh rupees. And he has paid back most of this money. So it seems he got more money too," Mr Kumar said.
Ramesh had got the job at the diplomat's house in Pakistan through his brother who is in the Indian Army. "It seems the brother knew this officer and he requested that Ramesh be employed as a cook," the police officer said.
The police have denied there is any evidence that any officer in the embassy was involved.
Ramesh was arrested in a joint operation by the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad, the Uttarakhand Police and the Directorate of Military Intelligence. A phone has been recovered from him, the police said. The capture of a suspected terrorist from Uttar Pradesh's Faizabad earlier this month led to his arrest.
Courtesy: NDTV
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
