Chargesheet filed against Pak spy of Lankan origin

CHENNAI : NIA on Friday filed a chargesheet against Lankan national Sakir Hussain and two others for conducting espionage on behalf of Pakistan's ISI and plotting to attack Israeli and US consulates in Chennai and Bangalore. The chargesheet, filed in a Chennai court, has cited as evidence photos of vital installations in India, emails exchanged between the accused and a Pakistani embassy official in Colombo and forensic analysis of Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN) recovered from the accused at the time of arrest.

It has also listed 40 witnesses. Sources said the Lankan national was hired by Pakistan embassy official Aamir Zubair Siddiqui who had been building a network of spies from the country to conduct espionage in India. Hussain had, in turn, hired Siva Balan and Mohammed Saleem who were arrested with FICN. Hussain was arrested with help from the Intelligence Bureau in Chennai in April and revealed a Pakistani conspiracy to attack US and Israeli consulates in Chennai with help from two Maldivian nationals. A month later, his associate Mohammed Sulaiman, another Sri Lankan, was arrested in Malaysia on similar charges.

A few months later, another Sri Lankan spy, Arun Selvarajan, working on behalf of ISI was arrested. This was in addition to the arrest of Chennai-born Pakistani spy Thameem Ansari in 2012. There are a total of nine accused in the case including the Pakistan embassy official.

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