A tale of espionage, intrigue in a small town in Punjab

His name was saved as "Happiness" in her phone. That hope unraveled when police came calling.

- Ravinder Vasudeva and Sunil Rahar

CHANDIGARH/HISAR:

Investigations by Punjab Police into the links between an expelled Pakistan high commission officer who allegedly ran a spy ring in India and a 32-year-old widow from Malerkotla, Punjab, have indicated that he used to develop personal relationships with visa applicants and then used them to gather information.

Guzala was arrested on May 8 by Punjab Police on the basis of an intelligence input provided by a central agency, a police officer said on condition of anonymity. She uses only one name, according to the first information report registered after her arrest and the written statement she gave police that has been accessed by HT.

On February 2, Guzala went to the Pakistan high commission in Delhi to get visas for herself, her aunt and two other relatives to visit family across the border.

"Next day my aunt went to the embassy to get an idea about our visas and told me that only my visa has been rejected from the group. We came back to Malerkotla," Guzala said in her statement to police.

Three weeks later, she got a Whatsapp message that changed her life.

"On February 27, I got a text on my Whatsapp from a person, who introduced himself as Danish, the visa officer at the Pakistan high commission, who had conducted my visa interview," Guzala told the police.

Eshan-Ur-Rahman, aka Danish, was declared persona non grata by India on May 13. More than two dozen people have since been arrested for allegedly passing on information to Pakistan, including Haryana YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra and Uttar Pradesh businessman Shazad Wahab. Many of them came into contact with Danish as part of the visa process at the high commission, according to statements by investigators. More arrests are expected as the investigation proceeds.