Madhuri visited Jammu in March,picked up packet for Pak handlers

Top government sources told The Sunday Express that the Gupta episode has raised questions on the functioning of Ramp;AW,as her boss R K Sharma,Counselor Press and agent under official cover,had no clue about the mole operating in his own department since 2008. Sharma was called back to Delhi after his cover was blown following Guptas arrest.

The spy scandal has come as an embarrassment to the Ramp;AW. The Intelligence Bureaus counter-intelligence wing chose to play its cards very close to its chest,and only informed Ramp;AW after Gupta had been taken into custody and interrogated on her Pakistani links. This was done to ascertain whether Sharma or any other person in the Indian mission was actually in cahoots with Gupta.

While the Ministry of External Affairs MEA has tried to make light of the entire episode by saying that Gupta had no access to highly sensitive information,the matter definitely has serious connotations as even the Ramp;AW chief,K C Verma,much to his chagrin,was informed by the IB wing after Gupta was arrested on April 22 and interrogated for four days.

The spy scandal has been discussed at the highest levels as Gupta had sent minutes of important meetings in the High Commission to the Pakistani intelligence,although she,or anyone else in the mission,has little idea about the changing Indian Army formations at any point of time.

Meanwhile,details emerging from Guptas interrogation indicate that she had gone to Sunderbani,90 kilometres from Jammu city and near the Line of Control,in her own car with Pakistani diplomatic numberplates after crossing the Wagah border on March 29. Gupta has disclosed that she was asked to pick up a packet from Jammu city,where she had gone for shopping with her Sunderbani friend on March 31,by her Pakistani handlers Mubashir Rana and Jamshed. It is now being investigated whether the man who gave her the packet belonged to Jammu city or had come from the Valley.

Gupta has reportedly told her interrogators that she was fond of John Le Carres spy thrillers and whatever she collected in her capacity as Urdu translator during bilateral meetings at the mission,or the buzz within,were communicated to her Pakistani handlers through open,and not coded,e-mails.