36-yr-old held for ‘Pak links’, protests at Shaheen Bagh

A 36-year-old man was arrested by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police on Tuesday evening from Shaheen Bagh in Southeast Delhi on charges of working for Pakistani intelligence.

Police said Zubair Khan, a resident of C-Block in Shaheen Bagh, and was arrested after several classified documents and photographs, belonging to the Indian Army, were found in his possession.

The arrest sparked protests in the area, with students from Khan's alma mater Jamia Millia Islamia taking to the streets in large number alleging a "frame-up". Protesters blocked roads between 10 am and 5 pm, leading to traffic snarls.

Police said Khan was planning to "supply" the confidential documents to an "agent at the Pakistan High Commission" in the city. Officers claimed Khan, a property dealer in Jamia Nagar, was being tracked for a while now.

"On July 17 we found him in possession of certain classified documents, including photographs, pertaining to the Indian Army. He was arrested from near a park in Kalindi Kunj and produced in court today," said Sanjay Jain, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime).

Khan was produced in the court of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Manish Yaduvanshi and remanded in two-day police custody.

"During questioning, he revealed that he had travelled to Pakistan a few years ago. There, he got lured into the job (supply of documents) by the intelligence agency for money. He used to run background checks on government officials and provide his recruiters vital inputs pertaining to the Indian Army," a senior officer said.

Khan, police claimed, also kept a tab on journalists to check who was "writing or speaking in favour and who went against" and gave inputs on mediapersons travelling to Pakistan .

"The terror groups in India and Pakistan rely heavily on the informer network, and Zubair was an integral part of this," an officer said.

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