Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh anti-terrorist squad (ATS) on Tuesday arrested another person, identified as Salman, 25, from Mumbai who had allegedly assisted Mohammad Raees in passing sensitive information to Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
A native of Gonda, Raees was nabbed by the ATS on Sunday for his alleged links with the Pakistan intelligence agency.
According to ATS, Raees told them that one Armaan who had brainwashed him was also arrested on July 17.
ATS officials said Salman’s transit remand has been prepared, and he will be brought to the ATS headquarters in Lucknow for interrogation. He would also be confronted with Raees and Armaan.
Sources said Salman’s name had cropped up during Raees’ interrogation and the recovery of data from his mobile phone.
“Raees had passed on photographs and videos of Babina cantonment in Jhansi to his handlers in Pakistan which were clicked and shot by Salman. Raees had received Rs 15,000 each on two occasions,” they said.
ATS said that both Salman and Armaan will be taken on remand and then questioned.
They added that Raees had gone to Mumbai in 2018 where he worked as a food delivery boy. Later, he got the job of veneer polishing in a seven-star hotel in Mumbai where he had met Armaan who allegedly brainwashed him.
During the interrogation, Raees told ATS officials that he had asked Armaan to get him a job in Saudi Arabia.
“Armaan had then given Raees a telephone number and told him that the man could arrange a job for him in Dubai. Raees later got a WhatsApp call from Pakistan in 2022 where the caller told him that a man named Hussain would call him up and tell him about the work. Hussain later called up Raees and told him that he was a spy from Pakistan and would give him a handsome amount if he helped him,” said ATS sources.
