An irate mob attacked and set on fire the furniture of Rajesh Kamble in survey no 24, Naik chawl and that of Abu Shaik's brother in Kundan Society, on Monday afternoon.

The Khadki police had taken into custody two youths hours after the incident. More youths were arrested in batches of six and three in the wee hours of Tuesday. They were later released on bail.

The youths were stated to belonging to local units of Bharatiya Janata Party, Shiv Sena and Republican Party of India Kamble who works with the office of Controller of Defence Accounts' Pay and Allowance (Other Ranks), section and Shaikh, an employee of the Ammunition Factory, Khadki, have been arrested by Pune police for allegedly helping the suspected ISI agent Sayeed Ahmed Mohammed Desai.

It may be recalled here, that Desai's wife had been arrested by Kolhapur police from Bastawad village under Shirol taluka, about three weeks ago on the charges of overstaying.

Desai was not present in Bastawad when his wife was picked up. He was later arrested in Pune .

According to senior police officials, the mob was led by politicians from the area, who attacked the house of Kamble and after throwing the furniture out they set it on fire. Shaikh's relative's house met a similar fate. Nobody was injured in the attack.

The issue of the ISI agent is all set to take a political twist as the Shiv Sena went around Khadki putting up boards condemning a local Congress politician for protecting these alleged ISI agents. Meanwhile, the prime accused, Pakistani agent Desai has been sent to Mumbai crime branch for further investigations.

According to the police, all the information provided by Desai was forwarded to Pakistan from Mumbai. The information would be faxed from Mumbai by Desai's colleagues.

Two of the accused, Abdul Samad (32) and Mohammed Shahnawaz (31) who were arrested from Mumbai, have been sent to Pune for interrogation. The two have been charged under the Official Secrets Act for faxing the information provided by Desai to their bosses in Pakistan.

The police are questioning officials of the Pune collectorate in connection with the ration card found in Desai's possession. According to the police officials the card was found to be in Abu Shaik's name with Desai's photograph.

The police are also miffed about the passport issued to Desai. According to senior officials, the city police had sent a note to the passport office in Mumbai that they had been unable to trace Desai's address. The Mumbai office issued a passport to Desai despite the police's inability to verify the details that Desai had provided when he applied for the passport.