'Pak handler had ISI marks'

Madhuri Gupta tells cops that her aide is a high-ranking officer in the intelligence agency

Madhuri Gupta tells cops that her aide is a high-ranking officer in the intelligence agency

Madhuri Gupta

The Pakistan handler of disgraced Indian diplomat Madhuri Gupta is known by his lesser rank.

Gupta, who was arrested by the central intelligence agencies and the Special Cell of the Delhi police, is believed to have told interrogators that Captain Rana, one of the men with whom she was in touch in Islamabad is actually a Major in the ISI.

She has also revealed that Rana is responsible for sending spies to India. According to sources privy to the 53-year-old diplomat's interrogation, Gupta had four main contacts in Pakistan with whom she met regularly. "Madhuri met her four contacts at a cafe in Jinnah market of Islamabad. She has revealed that Captain Rana is responsible for sending many youths to India for stealing classified data," sources said.u00a0u00a0u00a0

Interestingly, several months ago Mohammad Sayeed, a Pakistani spy arrested by the central security agencies, has also admitted that he was sent to New Delhi by a man named Major Rana. However, senior Special Cell officials refused to comment that Sayeed has anything to do with Gupta's case.

Agencies which are interrogating Gupta are also checking the e-mails which she has sent to her contacts and a couple in Jammu and Kashmir who frequently met her in Pakistan. "So far it doesn't look like she has managed to pass out vital information because she did not have access to it but we are still verifying the documents we have recovered from her and the e-mails she exchanged," sources added.

The second secretary at the Indian High Commission, who has been arrested on charges of allegedly spying for Pakistan, was hoping for a plum diplomatic posting in either London or Washington. "I should get London or Washington," a confident Gupta told a news agency a few months back.
Gupta had earlier served in the Indian mission in Baghdad and said she was looking forward to another good posting sometime later this year.

From scratch

Gupta made friends easily and was great with small talk. She could talk about clothes, hair styles or Pakistan's Urdu press "where the real news was" with equal ease. "English newspapers are boring. They always pick up news a day late. If you want to read real news, real gossip, read Urdu newspapers," she told a PTI correspondent once. Gupta learnt Urdu in New Delhi shortly before she was posted to Pakistan in late 2007. She hired a Muslim woman as a private tutor to teach her. "She taught me from scratch. I didn't even know my 'alif-bays'," said Gupta, who had earlier learnt another foreign language at Jawaharlal Nehru University's school of languages. Gupta spoke perfect Urdu and could have easily passed off as a Pakistani because of her accent. Like locals, she was always well dressed, make-up in place, her hair coloured and looked younger than her age. Gupta sometimes came across as brash and fearless, especially when she regaled friends with tales of driving to India via the Islamabad-Lahore motorway, often at breakneck speed.u00a0--Agencies