A staffer with the Indian Embassy in Moscow has been arrested by the Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) of Uttar Pradesh allegedly for spying for the Pakistani intelligence agency ISI. A statement by the UP ATS identified the accused as Satendra Siwal, a resident of Shahmahiuddinpur village in UP's Hapur district.
Siwal allegedly provided the ISI important confidential information regarding the strategic activities of the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian military establishments, an official statement issued on Sunday said.
According to the statement, the ATS received intelligence from various confidential sources that the handlers of the ISI, through some persons, were luring the employees of the MEA with money. In return, they wanted strategically important information related to the Indian Army, the statement said.
Subsequently, the ATS conducted an electronic and physical surveillance which revealed that Siwal was involved in anti-India activities with the network of the ISI handlers. Siwal was called to the ATS field unit Meerut and interrogated as per rules, the statement said.
He could not give satisfactory answers and confessed to his crime during the interrogation, it added.
An FIR has been registered against Siwal, who is working as the IBSA (India Based Security Assistant) in the Indian Embassy in Moscow, Russia, from 2021, at ATS police station, Lucknow, under Section 121A of the IPC (waging war against the country) and official secrets Act 1923, the statement said.