Evidence in Pakistani spy case goes missing

KANPUR: Material evidence in Munna Pakistani spy case, being tried in the court of additional district judge first, is missing. The judge had asked the police officials to trace and produce the evidence in the court.

In the absence of evidence, arguments could not take place on last date and the court had fixed next date as November 16 for arguments.

According to prosecution officer, there were five material evidences in which exhibit number 1 to 5 was marked at the time of framing charges. Maps and some other papers were among these evidences. They should be on record but these were missing from court file.

According to prosecution, a Special Task Force (STF) team of Lucknow and Kotwali police here had arrested Imran alias Munna Khan on May 10, 2002 around 12.40 pm on charges of being an ISI agent. Sleuths of STF contacted Kotwali police and both teams reached Parade. On the basis of a tip-off, the police nabbed Imran alias Munna.

The prosecution had claimed that at the time of his arrest, the police had recovered a passport, telephone diary, ration card and some secret documents of Indian army, including a map of Cantonment area. In diary, there were a few numbers of Karachi in Pakistan and addresses of Dubai. During interrogation, it came to light that parents and sister of Imran were residing in Pakistan while he and his brother Rizwan were residing in Kamal Khan Ka Hata in Moolganj. He had obtained a ration card in his father's name though he was a citizen of Pakistan and got endorsed her mother and sister's name as family members in the card.

Imran had twice visited Pakistan. First time, he stayed there for about three years and second time in the year 1994.This time, he had stayed there for seven years. He had obtained passport twice and on both the occasions, his passport was cancelled. In 2001, Imran got a job in Karachi and he was employed there in Loads Private limited, a radiator factory.There he had met an ISI official and he enticed for spying in India in lieu of money. The ISI trained him for two-and-a-half-month and sent him back to India with a passport and a ticket via Wagha border.

Munna had also revealed that he used to send documents to one Mahendra in Dubai and used to pass message on phone to a telephone number in Karachi. He was going to deliver a packet to a courier company at Somdutt Plaza, when he was arrested. The high court had granted him bail on August 19, 2003 and since then his case was being tried in Kanpur. The prosecution had charged him under Official Secret Act and Indian Passport Act, besides various Sections of IPC.