Gujarat: Army man, relative held for spying

An Army man and his relative have been arrested in Kutch district by the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) on charges of spying and passing on Indian Army's confidential documents to Pakistan-based intelligence agencies, ATS officials said.

Ibrahim Sama, recruited through the Military Engineering Service (MES), and his maternal uncle Osmaan Sama were arrested on Thursday from Bhuj in Kutch, which has borders with Pakistan, on charges of spying and criminal conspiracy to disturb internal security, they said.

Confidential and sensitive documents of the Indian Army and some phone numbers of their Pakistani contacts, were recovered during searches conducted in the duo's houses, the officials said.

Both were produced before a local court in Bhuj, which sent them to nine-day police custody for further interrogation, they added.

The officials said that the ATS had received a tip-off that Sama used to get secret and confidential documents from the Army as he had an access to its base in Bhuj.

He used to send the confidential documents to his uncle Osmaan of Nana Dinara village in Bhuj, with the objective to pass it on to Pakistani intelligence agencies, they said.

Both have been booked under various sections of Official Secrets Act of illegal possession of confidential Army documents, and section 120 B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the ATS officials said.