ISI ‘agent’ from Uttarakhand held for spying

Dehradun, May 24

In a joint operation, the Uttarakhand Police and Uttar Pradesh’s Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) arrested a man from Pithoragarh on Wednesday for allegedly acting as an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agent and passing on sensitive information to the Pakistan spy agency.

Ramesh Singh Kanyal, who runs a PDS shop in Didihat, was produced before a magistrate in Pithoragarh and taken by the ATS on transit remand to Lucknow for questioning.

Sources said Kanyal worked as a cook in the Indian High Commission in Pakistan between 2015 and 2017 and “came in contact with ISI agents” during his stay.

He returned in 2017 and settled down at Balmara village (on the Nepal border) where he opened a shop under the Public Distribution System.

“He was on the police radar for being in touch with Aftab of Faizabad, an ISI agent caught recently by the UP Police. A Pakistani mobile phone was found on him. He is believed to have bugged the office of the Indian diplomat in whose house he was working as a cook in Pakistan,” said Ashok Kumar, ADGP, Law and Order.

Police officials claimed Kanyal was being paid in dollars by his Pakistani handlers. “He apparently got the job in the High Commission on the recommendation of his brother, who is in the Army,” said Kumar. — TNS