‘ISI agent’ land deals under scanner

Rachna Khaira

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, October 12

The District and Sessions Court today remanded suspected ISI agent Ehsaan-ul-Haq in police custody for five days. Haq was nabbed in an operation conducted by the intelligence agencies and the Jalandhar police yesterday.

Haq, an Austrian citizen, got his PAN and Aadhaar cards made from Salempur Masanda village in Jalandhar. He also purchased a plot and constructed a house at Alipur village on the outskirts of the local cantonment.

ACP, Special Branch, Manpreet Singh Dhillon said the police investigation would focus on how he managed to get his PAN and Aadhaar cards made despite being a foreign national. Besides, the police would verify about his other land deals made in India.

“While Haq claimed that he got the documents made to purchase land only, we are investigating other angles also. Though he was a Pakistani citizen till 2006, he got Austrian PR in 2007. Later, he settled in Jalandhar,” said Dhillon.

In a statement given to the police, Haq has stated that his family migrated from Ranipur village in Phagwara to Pakistan during Partition. He did his BCom from Khalsa College in Lyallpur (Faisalabad) in 1991 and went to Saudi Arabia to work as an accountant. Later, he went to Austria in 2001 and got married to an Austrian woman to get permanent residency.

After getting the Austrian citizenship, he returned to Pakistan. In 2007, his wife divorced him after his passport expired. Later, he befriended Balwinder Kaur, who hailed from Mukandpur village in Nawanshahr, on Facebook and got married to her in 2012.

Haq also withdrew Rs 17 lakh from her bank account to get the house constructed at Alipur. The intelligence agencies are also verifying his wife’s role as Haq used to send her money from Austria in two bank accounts opened in her name at Talhan village.