Pak spy sentenced to seven-year jail

Chandigarh (IANS): A Pakistani national was sentenced to seven years' rigorous imprisonment after an Indian court convicted him for spying.

The court here also slapped a fine of Rs.14,000 on Abid Mehmood.

The 27-year-old was arrested from Sector-34 of Chandigarh in February 2003. Abdul Wahid, an Indian national accompanying him at that time, was also arrested.

Chief Judicial Magistrate Kanchan Mahi sentenced Wahid to seven-year jail and to pay a fine of Rs.4,000.

Mehmood is from Liakatpur district in Pakistan, and lived there with his parents and elder brother, said a police official.

According to the police, Mehmood lived in Chandigarh, posing as Nihal Chauhan and claiming to be a native of Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. The police recovered a fake voter identity card, bogus sports certificates and a digital camera from him.

"The police also recovered documents and maps containing information about infantry battalions, armoured units, artillery regiments and other sensitive information regarding the military deployment and air defence regiments in the country," the public prosecutor told the court.

Initially, Mehmood said he was a software engineer and he had gone to Nepal before returning to India. Later, however, he confessed before the police that he had secret documents related to India's defence.