Madhuri Gupta claims she is being framed

Madhuri Gupta, a junior Indian official arrested on the charges of spying for Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), told a court here on Saturday that she was being framed.

According to a police official,  Madhuri Gupta, 53, said she was not a senior officer and could not have passed on sensitive information to her contacts in Pakistan where she was posted in the Indian High Commission. Madhuri, who had been in police custody for five days, also said she had revealed the identities of Indian undercover agents in Pakistan. According to court sources, the police wanted to extend her remand for two more days as they claimed she was changing her statements time and again in order to mislead them. Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja refused to grant  this demand and remanded her  to 14-day judicial custody. The officer, a specialist interpreter in Urdu, was posted in the media and information wing of the high commission. She came under the scanner after she showed “extraordinary” interest in areas beyond her role in the information wing of the mission. Central security agencies then involved senior MEA officials by briefing them about her activities in Pakistan, which included supplying of sensitive and classified documents related to Indian activities in that country and Afghanistan. A promotee officer of Ministry of External Affairs, Gupta has worked in the mission for nearly three years. The Special Branch of Delhi Police will charge Gupta with offence under the Official Secrets Act of 1923. The Act says that any person charged with disclosing information that is likely to affect the security of the State is punishable by law. Gupta, a second secretary at the Indian mission in Islamabad, was arrested here on April 27.