A Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence agent has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Nizamabad district in Andhra Pradesh.

The second additional district and sessions judge, M Rajamouli Sharma, in the judgement delivered on Tuesday, held the accused guilty of various offences under the Indian Penal Code.

The ISI agent Ashiq Ali alias Shahneel Tahir Ahmed alias Raza Khan was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for life and to pay a fine of Rs 500 for the charge under section 121 of the IPC. He was also sentenced to RI for 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs 300 under section 12 A of the IPC and RI for five years and a fine of Rs 200 for the offence under Section 14 of the Foreigners Act.

The judge ruled that all these sentences would run concurrently.

The 25-year-old Ashiq Ali was arrested at Sarangapur village in Nizamabad district on January 26, 2002, while he was passing information relating to the Indian defence forces to Pakistan from an STD booth. He was found to be a native of Hyderabad, Sindh, in Pakistan and sent to India to pass on defence secrets.

Police had seized two pocket diaries containing Pakistan and Hyderabad defense-based telephone numbers, Islamic literature, telephone bills of ISD calls to different Pakistan numbers, a rough sketch of Secunderabad Cantonment area, photographs of defence-related areas and the College of Defence Management, Secunderabad.

More news: Andhra Pradesh