Recruitment racket run by ISI agent busted; used to withdraw money from Pakistani bank for espionage in India

KOLKATA: An ATM card of a nationalised bank in Pakistan had been used regularly to fund a suspected ISI agent Akhtar Khan, investigations have revealed, blowing the lid off a possible espionage activity.

Khan was arrested from north Kolkata on November 14, helping the special task force bust a recruitment racket run by Akhtar and his brother Zafar, who was also later nabbed by the cops. A huge amount of money used to be deposited in an account in Karachi which used to be drawn by Akhtar in Kolkata, and the card was activated in Karachi five years ago, claimed the investigators.

The account that was opened in one of the branches of a Karachi-based nationalised bank used to receive about Rs 4-5 lakh every 2-3 months. “During interrogation, Akhtar admitted that he used to get about Rs 4-5 lakh per assignment, which was given by his handlers in Dubai. However, the remuneration used to be deposited with the nationalised bank and he withdrew the amount in one go,” an investigator told ET. Akhtar used to work as labour contractor who took village youths to Middle East on construction projects. In a detailed dossier, the central agencies in Kolkata mentioned about the ATM card of the Pakistani bank and attached all transaction details. The dossier has also included details of the “proxy server” that Akhtar used for sending encrypted messages.

“He used to make internet calls and send coded messages to his handlers. His job was to recruit people and gather information about the defence establishments in eastern India,” said a senior police official. A detailed report based on the interrogation in the past few days has already been sent to the union home ministry.

The ‘international funding’ issue would be raised in diplomatic channels too. Senior officials of the central intelligence agency have already grilled Akhtar, while NIA officials are likely to interrogate him further. A special team has been formed to track and trace people who were recruited by Akhtar as agents here. “He had befriended like-minded people and brainwashed them, and many of them were sent to Pakistan for training. He was running a racket here,” said the official.

“We are still assessing the damage potential of his recruits. However, Akhtar appears to be a very important catch for us. Later, we can take him to Delhi for further investigation,” said a person familiar with the matter.