Nadiad court rejects bail plea of ‘Pak spy’

Barot added that the government also informed the court that Pal allegedly began another business in an assumed name as 'Priya Thakur'. “For this, she also acquired the OTP through from neighbour's phone... Moreover, several other accused are wanted in the case....” Barot said.

THE NADIAD Sessions court in Kheda on Tuesday rejected the bail plea of alleged Pakistani spy Rashmani Pal in an espionage case lodged by Gujarat ATS earlier in December. Pal, who is accused of being a conduit of Pakistani handlers and allegedly honey-trapping army jawans to reveal locations of their units, had “befriended” some men in a village in Kheda district, where she had a parcel from Pakistan delivered – setting Intelligence agencies and the Gujarat Police on the trail.

Public Prosecutor Dhaval Barot said on Tuesday that the Nadiad sessions court had considered the arguments of the government that Pal could derail the investigation in the case by “destroying sensitive evidence” if she is granted bail. Barot said, “The investigators have found direct WhatsApp and other text communication between Pal and the Pakistani handlers, who are seeking information of the army unit movements through the jawans she has engaged in conversations… We also informed the court that she had assumed multiple fake identities to establish contact with 16 army jawans and regularly sought information from them.”

Barot said that although Pal hails from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh and was residing in Dadar and Nagar Haveli at the time of her arrest, she had befriended men from Kachhai village in Kheda district to help her in handling her social media account. Barot said, “The investigation has found that she delegated the handling of her social media accounts to other people to avoid detection… She had established contact with a person from Kacchai village to handle her social media account and upload high resolution videos… Thereafter, she came in contact with other friends of the person, who told her that a high speed internet router was needed for the work.”

It was then that a parcel from an undisclosed location in Pakistan arrived in Kheda and was intercepted by the agencies. “The security intelligence began probing the parcel as there was no one in the village, who had a Pakistani connection… The trail then led the Gujarat ATS to Pal. It has been established so far that she was in direct contact with the Pakistani handlers, particularly Abdul Sattar, whom she had befriended earlier on social media.”

According to the ATS case, ISI operatives, such Abdul Sattar and Khalid, allegedly offered Pal “financial benefits” in exchange for creating a fake identity and forging friendships with Indian Army personnel identified by the ISI. Pal had been handed the task to extract confidential military information from the army officers regarding “movement of army units, exercises and strategy” with the intention to “launch an attack on the Indian Army”.

Pal and another arrested co-accused, Ajaykumar Singh from Goa, have been booked for criminal conspiracy and committing offence against the state.