WHY MADURI GUPTA WAS SPYING

New Delhi, April 27 (IANS) Madhuri Gupta, the junior Indian diplomat who was arrested here on charges of spying for Pakistan's ISI, worked with the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), a foreign policy think tank, before she was posted at the Indian high commission in Islamabad.

She worked here in 2006-2007 as assistant director, an official at the ICWA, better known as Sapru House, told IANS.

Sources told IANS that she specialized in Urdu and was very keen to go to Pakistan, suggesting that she may have had cross-border links for some time.

Gupta, who served as second secretary at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was arrested from her home here on the charges of spying for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), police and official sources told IANS.

'The accused Madhuri Gupta was arrested from her house in east Delhi by Delhi Police's Special Cell on charges of spying and leaking some important documents. Before the arrest, she was detained and questioned for 2-3 days,' a police source told IANS.

'She was serving in press and information wing of the Indian High Commission in Pakistan for the last couple of years. Her movements were being followed from past several months,' he said.

'The woman was produced in the court Monday after which she was sent to police custody,' the source added, saying that an official statement on the arrest would probably come from the external affairs ministry.

'We do not deny the report. But this is beyond the purview of the home ministry,' G.K. Pillai, home secretary, told Times Now channel.

Other sources said Gupta had been under the scanner for some time and the action was taken after it was confirmed that she was passing sensitive information to her handlers.

Gupta was not a member of the main Indian Foreign Service (IFS), but belonged to the lower cadre known as IFS-B.