A 60-year-old man, carrying a reward of Rs25,000 on his head, was arrested here for allegedly helping an ISI agent in acquiring an Indian passport, police said today.
The arrested has been identified as Nafees Ahmed, a resident of Lucknow.
Ahmed, who managed to hoodwink police for last eight months, had allegedly helped Abdul Jabbar, a Pak national whom police claimed was an ISI agent, additional deputy commissioner of police (special cell) Shibesh Singh said.
Ahmed was arrested from near Patiala Courts here on July 19 when he came there to meet someone.
Jabbar was apprehended earlier from IGI airport while trying to flee to UAE. On a search, sensitive documents pertaining to Indian Air Force were allegedly recovered from his possession.
During investigation, Singh said, it came to light that Jabbar had come into India on the direction of his mentors for espionage.
"He was imparted training in Pakistan. Jabbar entered into India through Nepal border on the basis of forged document of Indian identity. Initially, he visited Delhi and then went to Lucknow," Singh said.
It also came to light that Jabbar managed to obtain an Indian passport with the help of others -- Amman Waris, Mohd Arshad, Khalil Ahmed and Nafees Ahmed, all residents of Lucknow. Waris, Arshad and Ahmed were arrested earlier.
"The interrogation of accused revealed that the forged documents were arranged by Ahmed. Jabbar was provided shelter in Lucknow by Ahmed," Singh said.
"It also came to light that Ahmed is involved in facilitating and harbouring the spy and providing logistics to him to operate in India. He is the main aide to the resident agent and provided forged documents for procuring Indian passport," Singh said.
Ahmed is a school dropout. He had started a business of building material. During this time, he came in contact with Waris and some other travel agents operating in Lucknow and Gorakhpur.
"Along with them, he cheated several persons by arranging fake visa for them," he said.
