NEW DELHI: An Indian diplomat convicted of passing state secrets toPakistan’s intelligence services has been jailed for three years, herlawyer said on Sunday.
Madhuri Gupta was found guilty in a New Delhi court on Friday of “spyingand wrongful communication of information” while posted to the Indianembassy in Islamabad.
Gupta, 61, was arrested in 2010 for allegedly passing information to thespy agency.
The low-level diplomat was detained for alleged breaches of India’sofficial secrets act and held for two years before being released on bail.
Her lawyer, Joginder Dahiya, said Gupta would appeal her sentencing in ahigher court.
“She has already been in custody for about 21 months. She should have beenreleased on the basis of the time she has already spent in jail,” he said.
Gupta avoided more serious jail time because the information she passed toPakistani handlers in 2009 and 2010 was not military in nature, the PressTrust of India reported.
As a second secretary, Gupta was among the lowest ranked officials at thehighly-sensitive embassy in Islamabad.
She has always denied the charges and claims she was falsely implicated bythe embassy and foreign ministry officials with whom she had a strainedrelationship.
But the court determined that her actions had tarnished India’s reputationand compromised its security, handing the maximum possible jail term forthe offences.
The information “passed on by the accused [was] categorically sensitiveinformation which could have been useful to the enemy country and itssecrecy was of utmost importance,” PTI reported.
“Therefore, she does not deserve any leniency in punishment.” Indian policesay Gupta had been under surveillance for six months before being takeninto custody in 2010.
Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan routinely accuse one another of sendingspies into their countries, and it is not uncommon for either nation toexpel diplomats accused of espionage. – APP/AFP