India confirms probe of diplomat who leaked information to Pakistan(Lead:Diplomat)

THIMPHU - A spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs on Tuesday confirmed the news that an Indian woman diplomat is being investigated for passing on sensitive information to Pakistan intelligence agencies.

Spokesman Vishnu Prakash said in Thimphu, Bhutan:”There have been a number of inquiries and a number of questions have been asked. I wanted to share with you that we have reason to believe that an official of the Indian High Commission had been passing on information to Pakistan intelligence agencies. The matter is under investigation. The official is cooperating with the investigation.”

Madhuri Gupta, a second secretary with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was arrested here on Sunday after being called back by the Ministry of External Affairs for consultations related to the XVIth SAARC Summit.

Gupta was produced before a court here on Monday and remanded to police custody for four days.

Earlier, the Times Now private television channel had broken the news of Gupta, 53, had been leaking sensitive and strategic Indian Government information to Pakistan for the past two years.

The news report said that Indian intelligence agencies had been monitoring the activities of Gupta, an Indian Foreign Service (IFS)-B grade officer, for the past year, and added that over the past six months, the surveillance had been raised to a higher level.

The channel said the issue was not so much about the arrest of the diplomat, as it was about Pakistan being successful in planting a mole in the Indian diplomatic mission in Islamabad.

Pakistan Government spokesman Abdul Basit said that it was upto the Indian Government to take or not to take action against the arrested official.

Gupta, who was a specialist interpreter in Urdu, was posted in the media and information wing of the high commission

As of now, Gupta is being interrogated by personnel of the Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing (R and AW). (ANI)