NIA court convicts a couple in Naval espionage case related to Pak intel agencies
Abdul Rehman and Shaista Qaiser had operated as agents of foreign intelligence agencies involved in anti-India espionage activities : NIA
New Delhi, February 27
A husband and wife duo have been convicted and sentenced to simple imprisonment by the NIA Special Court, Visakhapatnam, in the high-profile Naval espionage case linked with Pakistani intelligence agencies.
The court today sentenced Abdul Rehman and his wife Shaista Qaiser to 5½ years of simple imprisonment and fine of Rs. 5,000 under each of section 17 and 18 of UA(P) Act, 1967. They will have to undergo an additional 1-year imprisonment in case of default in payment of fine, the court ordered in its judgement, pronounced after the two pleaded guilty.
The two accused were arrested between December 2019 and June 2020 in the case, in which 15 accused, have so far been arrested and chargesheeted by NIA under various sections of IPC, Official Secrets Act, and UA(P) Act.
NIA investigations revealed that Abdul Rehman and Shaista Qaiser had operated as agents of foreign intelligence agencies involved in anti-India espionage activities. They had connected with Pakistani agents via their Pak relatives and had visited Pakistan between 14th August 2018 and 1st September 2018.
Acting on directions of the Pakistani agents, they had used various online money transfer Points of Sale (PoS) to transfer funds into accounts of other accused persons for leaking sensitive defence information detrimental to India’s security, as per NIA investigations into the case.
