The Special Task Force (STF) of Kolkata Police has seized a mobile phone SIM card which it believes was used by the three suspected ISI agents, arrested earlier, to pass on information to Pakistan.
“They passed on information electronically and also through other means which could be manual. There can be others involved who acted as messengers,” a senior STF officer said.
As Irshad Ansari’s educational qualification and proficiency in understanding technical jargon were not up to the mark, his son Asfaq Ansari helped him, the officer said.
In fact, Asfaq’s passport details showed that he had been to Bangladesh twice in the recent past, he said.
“But the exact purpose of his visit is still unknown... We are looking into it.”
According to another STF officer dealing with the case, Asfaq met Iqbal, his father’s elder brother in Dhaka during his visits there.
“Whether the meeting was to pass on information or to get some training is still not known,” he said.
Irshad’s family, hailing from Bihar, consists of five brothers and sisters, the STF officer said.
“His elder sister got married in what was then east Pakistan and after the partition of Pakistan and Bangladesh in 1971, she and her in-laws went to Karachi and settled there.”
In 1976 Irshad’s elder brother Iqbal went to Pakistan, got married and settled there followed by another brother Irfan who also started his own business there,” he said.
Irshad went to Pakistan in 1985 to visit them and stayed there for about three months, the Kolkata Police STF officer said. “After that Irshad went to Pakistan in 2005 and that was when he was picked up by Pakistani agency to work for them as informer,” he said.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)