Rajasthani spies had political ambitions

Two of the three Rajasthanis arrested for passing sensitive information to a Pakistani spy in New Delhi seemed to have political ambitions. One fought Assembly elections while the other has pictures of prominent BJP leaders on his Facebook page.

Subhash Jangir from Nagaur, who was introduced as a para-military officer to Pakistani official Mehmood Akhtar by Maulana Ramzan, fought the last state Assembly elections as an independent from the Khimsar constituency. However, he got just 1,939 votes and lost his deposit. He used to run a kirana shop in the town.

His devastated father Hariram, a retired physical education teacher, said he had no inkling of what his son was doing. “There was nothing suspicious about his conduct and behaviour. Two days ago, he left for Delhi to purchase firecrackers for Diwali,” he said. The entire family is in a state of shock, unable to believe that Jangir was part of espionage. “Had I known this, I would have shot him myself,” his father said.

Another person who appeared to have political ambitions is Jodhpur-based Soheb Hussain, who was detained by the Rajasthan police following tip-off from the Delhi police.

Soheb, who came into contact with the Pakistani official as a passport and visa agent, has allegedly played a key role in recruiting new people for the racket and arranging visas for them to travel to Pakistan.

There are pictures of him with defence minister Manohar Parrikar, although Mr Parrikar appears to be chatting with someone else, and Rajasthan’s transport minister Yunus Khan, with whom Soheb is seen standing in front of a hoarding of BJP national council meeting in New Delhi.

He was ward president of the BJP’s minority cell. But currently, his status says he is a BJP worker. Soheb is said to have come in contact with Maulana around one-and-a-half years ago, when he was lured into joining Maulana in collecting vital information about the installations of Army and para-military forces in Gujarat and Rajasthan.