Disgraced Indian Foreign Service diplomat Madhuri Gupta was obviously involved in a romantic relationship with one of her handlers Jamshed, whom she had asked to accompany her to Istanbul, but the latter declined, says an Indian Express report.
The lady booked under the Official Secrets Act, told her interrogators several facts which have now been corroborated by some of the 73 emails retrieved by the Delhi Police.
Her two email accounts (atlastrao@gmail.com and rearao@gmail.com) yielded 19 emails with documents running into 73 pages in her ‘inbox' and 54 emails of 285 pages in her ‘sent' folder.
The Delhi Police last week formally wrote to the Ministry of External Affairs listing these emails and handed over the 358 pages of data recovered seeking opinion of how the information contained could be categorised.
Significantly, the letter from the Delhi Police states that information contained in the emails “seem to contain sensitive/secret information” and a formal reply has been sought from them on whether the contents of the emails could be categorised as 1) classified 2) prejudicial to safety and security of the State 3) useful to an enemy country and 4) dealing with the defence and security of the country.
The official classification of the information in the emails along with the contents of the hard disk of her computer, which is presently being examined by the Forensic Science Laboratory in New Delhi, will be part of the crucial inputs in the chargesheet to be filed next month in the case.
Her interrogation and mails have thrown up interesting facts: Gupta told her interrogators how her bosses in the High Commission sent her out to get a copy of Jaish-e-Muhammed leader Maulana Masood Azhar's book on jehad to “unsafe localities” of Karachi.
Being an Indian diplomat, she was trailed by Pakistani Intelligence Bureau sleuths who warned her not to enter unsafe localities. However, she got the book and told interrogators that the Pakistani journalist, who had several times been denied an Indian visa and who was the one who introduced her to her handlers Mushabar Raza Rana and Jamshed, also contacted her in her hotel during the Karachi trip.
There is one email which reportedly gives a strong indication of a romantic relationship between the diplomat and Jamshed, who was several years younger than her. Gupta had evidently even asked him to accompany her on a trip to Istanbul. He had, however, declined the offer since he did not get permission from his bosses.
Gupta's admissions and a scrutiny of the emails show that she was sending weekly, fortnightly and monthly reports to Rana, which he was evidently handing over to his bosses. Part of the reports — the portions dealing with coverage from the Urdu press — were a modification of what the Second Secretary prepared routinely for the Indian High Commission and the rest was what is being described as “soft intelligence” containing details of meetings, delegation visits, travel itineraries and telephone numbers of officials of the Indian High Commission.
While most of the emails were allegedly exchanged between Gupta and Rana, Jamshed was reportedly always present in the safe house when she visited it, either in her own car or in a vehicle sent by the handlers.
