A similar betrayal had occurred in India long before YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra was arrested for allegedly giving Pakistan military secrets. Another woman from the system was at the centre of a startling espionage scandal fifteen years ago. A mid-level diplomat in Islamabad named Madhuri Gupta was charged with clandestinely advancing the objectives of Pakistan’s infamous Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
Word reached then-Intelligence Bureau chief Rajiv Mathur about a mole in India’s High Commission in Islamabad in early 2010, just one and a half years after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. Another intelligence lapse was a risk India could not afford at a time when tensions between India and Pakistan were still simmering.
Madhuri Gupta, a Grade B Indian Foreign Service officer and the Second Secretary (Press & Information) in Islamabad, was the name that appeared in the internal alerts. Gupta was well-known for her knowledge of Urdu and her passion for poetry and Sufism, but her profile scarcely resembled that of a double agent. However, the leak trail revealed a different picture.
Rajiv Mathur alerted Home Secretary GK Pillai and KC Verma, the head of the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), to Gupta’s questionable actions after preliminary intelligence inputs “signalled” them. The decision to continue surveillance for an additional two weeks was made in spite of reservations. She allegedly received false information during this time that was linked to her when it was leaked.
Gupta, unaware of the net closing in, was summoned to Delhi on the pretext of helping with media relations for the SAARC Summit to be held in Bhutan later that year. She arrived in the national capital on 21 April 2010, spent the night at her West Delhi residence, and reported to the MEA office the next morning. There, at South Block, the Special Cell of Delhi Police, already tipped off, was called in. In minutes, Gupta, a Grade B Indian Foreign Service Officer, was taken into custody for leaking classified defence information to Pakistan’s ISI.
On April 22, 2010, she was taken into custody under the Official Secrets Act. Reports citing “official sources” essentially exposed RK Sharma, the R&AW Station Chief in Islamabad, by naming him as being under investigation. He had worked as a counsellor under diplomatic cover. According to a 2012 Caravan report, “Sharma’s official cover in Islamabad had been blown by his own country, a move that seemed certain to damage R&AW operations in Pakistan and bring his assignment to a swift and ignominious end.”
What caused Gupta Madhuri to fall? Investigators came to the conclusion that she had fallen for a honeytrap. “They threw a young man at her and she got trapped,” Pankaj Sood, the investigating officer, told The Caravan reporters. The young man was Jamshed, also known as Jim, a thirty-year-old Pakistani agent half her age who had been assigned to woo Gupta and obtain private data. The operation was coordinated by another handler, Mudassar Raza Rana, who was a classmate of Rehman Malik, the interior minister of Pakistan at the time. After gaining her trust by assisting her in finding a rare book by Maulana Masood Azhar, the head of the terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed, they initially got in touch with her through a female journalist.
Gupta allegedly maintained continuous communication with both men via a Blackberry phone and a computer set up in her Islamabad home. The investigation also found that Gupta, who was enamoured with Jamshed, had stated plans to convert to Islam, wed him, and visit Istanbul. Her letters frequently discussed Urdu, Rumi, and Sufism—interests that Jamshed took advantage of.
Gupta had allegedly travelled to Jammu and Kashmir in March 2010 on Rana’s instructions. There, she was believed to have attempted to procure the Annual Plan Report of the state and details about a proposed 310 MW hydro-electric power project. According to the chargesheet, investigators retrieved around 73 emails exchanged via two email addresses allegedly created by the Pakistani agents for Gupta: **lastrao@gmail.com and **arao@gmail.com. “She had blown the covers of all the Indian intelligence officials in Pakistan, disclosed biographical details for every employee at the High Commission, and also mentioned the existence of ‘some secret routes to India’,” said investigating officer Pankaj Sood.
The first charges against Madhuri Gupta were brought in 2012 under Sections 3 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act, which carried a 14-year maximum sentence. Before obtaining bail, she was first detained in Tihar Jail for 21 months. She was ultimately found guilty of spying for Pakistan by a city court in 2018. She passed away in October 2021 at the age of 64 while awaiting trial in Bhiwadi, Rajasthan. At the time of her death, the Delhi High Court was still considering her appeal against the conviction.
