Diplomat Madhuri wanted blueprints of hydel projects in J&K
The external affairs ministry official Madhuri Gupta, who is in jail on charges of spying for Pakistan, was looking for blueprints of Salal Hydel project in Poonch district and of a coal mine in Kalakote during her visit to Jammu in March-April this year. This came to light during investigations into the case by security agencies which were trying to ascertain the purpose of the visit of the diplomat to Rajouri district.
Contrary to earlier reports that she had picked up a packet, the 53-year-old Gupta is understood to have failed to reach her contact from whom she had to take blueprints pertaining to these projects. Sources said she could not get in touch with her contact because of heavy presence of police, paramilitary forces and other units of the army which had gathered there in connection with an encounter that was going on around the same time after terrorists of Lashker-e-Tayyaba slipped into the area.
The IFS-B officer, who was posted in Indian Mission at Islamabad as Second Secretary in the Press and Information wing and arrested in April this year after she was called to Delhi, has named other officials who need to be investigated, the sources said.
A thorough enquiry was launched by security agencies to ascertain the "source" of Gupta, the sources said. The 690 MW Salal Hydel project is located in Reasi district and is one of the major contributors to the northern power grid with 3,101 million units per year. Another minor hydel project located in Poonch area was also under the radar of the ISI and therefore the Pakistani agency had tasked the diplomat to procure some papers related to it. She was also asked for a blueprint of a coal mine in Kalakote in Rajouri.
The officer, who is at present in judicial custody, has been maintaining that certain classified documents were procured from within the Indian Mission in Islamabad.
The diplomat named Mubassar Rana, in his late 50's, and Jamshed, another Pakistan intelligence official in his early 30's, as her handlers.
Her stay in a border district of Jammu and Kashmir was being probed by security agencies which had grilled her over her contacts in Pakistan and the nature of documents supplied by her handlers.
She had driven to Sunderban in the border district of Rajouri in Jammu region during which she had toured the area extensively in her Pakistan-registered car between March 29 and April one this year.
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