Ever since the trailer of the much-awaited film ‘The Kerala Story’ was released there have been a series of fact-checks and reports that claim the writers have manipulated the stats. However, the makes claims that the film is based on real-life stories. The actual story and the victim’s name are not revealed, as of now.
We bring to you a similar story but of a boy from Pune who landed in trouble after falling in love with a Pakistani woman who had links with ISI. This boy Vishal had to serve seven years in jail after he was trapped in an espionage case. As per the police, he pass confidential information to Pakistan under the influence of the family.
Twenty-five-year-old Vishal started chatting with a woman online back in 2005. The woman was Pakistani and they met on the social media platform. Two years later, the love affair that began with internet chats, hundreds of phone calls, two visits to Pakistan and a promise to convert to Islam ended up with Vishal landing in jail in an espionage case and serving a jail term of seven years.
Vishal comes from a middle-class family in Jharkhand and he moved to Pune in 2004 for studies. At Pune, he met a girl, Fatima Sallahudin Sha through Yahoo Mail. Sha was a resident of Karachi in Pakistan. Both of them shared their personal details, Sha said her father was a retired Pakistani Army personnel.
Later they fell in love with each other and then Sha gave him a Pakistani phone number. Vishal started talking to her through the STD phone, the bill amounted to 1.5 Lakh rupees however, he could only pay 40,000 rupees to the shopkeeper.
Vishal also spoke to Sha’s parents in Pakistan over the phone. Though they initially rejected his marriage proposal, they later agreed on the condition that he would convert to Islam, as per the police records. Her parents called Vishal to Pakistan saying they would settle them in London after marriage.
Vishal soon applied for a Pakistani visa however it was rejected. this is when Sallahudin gave him the contact number of Syed S Hussain Tirmizi, a staffer at the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi.
Vishal allegedly contacted Tirmizi and handed over his documents. During this period, he stayed at a lodge in Delhi’s Paharganj area and received money from Sha and her father.
Tirmizi and Latif arranged for Vishal’s visa to Pakistan, the police said. The investigation revealed that Vishal visited Pakistan twice – for four days on October 14, 2006, and then for over two weeks on January 23, 2007.
“We had information that he was planning to hand over the crucial information to someone in Pakistan so we started surveillance,” said Bhanupratap Barge, the investigation officer of this case said.
Vishal was arrested on charges of spying by the Pune city police on April 8, 2007.During searches, the police allegedly recovered CDs with photographs of buildings of various Army establishments in Pune like the National Defence Academy (NDA), Bombay Engineering Group (BEG), Southern Command etc.
It also carried photographs of sensitive locations like the famous Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Temple and the RSS head office ‘Motibag’ in Pune, the police said.
A FIR against Vishal was registered at the Deccan police station in Pune under Section 120b (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and sections of the Official Secrets Act (OSA).
As per the police investigation, based on a statement given by Vishal, during his second visit to Pakistan, Sallahudin allegedly took him to a secret location where he was given military training for “terrorism activities”.
After returning to Pune, Vishal allegedly started gathering information. He contacted Tirmizi and also allegedly received a CD from a man identified as ‘Hafiji’.
The police probe revealed that Vishal visited NDA twice. Indian Army authorities said that information seized from him was of a “classified nature”. The police alleged that Vishal was about to send this information to Pakistan and he was booked under the OSA.
The probe also revealed that Vishal had contacted some Muslim clerics in Pune and Malegaon to convert to Islam. Police said Sallahudin allegedly told the cleric (who recorded his statement in front of the police) that Vishal had already converted to Islam and was given the name ‘Bilal’.
In July 2007, the police submitted a chargesheet against Vishal before a Pune court. He denied the prosecution’s allegations and said that he went to Pakistan twice but only due to his love affair. The court, however, observed that the evidence shows Vishal was in the “thick of conspiracy”.
On March 29, 2011, the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate Suchitra Ghodke held Vishal guilty under sections 120 b of the IPC and sections of the OSA. He was awarded with seven years of imprisonment. The police said he was released after serving his term at the Yerwada Central Prison.
With alleged links to an ISI agent and two officials from the Pakistan High Commission, the case even saw the Pune police seeking help from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). Sixteen years later, the alleged ISI agent Sallahudin Sha and his daughter Fatima Sha are still named as ‘wanted’ in the 2007 espionage case records.
This report was compiled following an exclusive Indian Express Report.
