The junior diplomat, accused of passing on information to Pak, denies honey trap theory in court.
For all the infamy surrounding her name, Madhuri Gupta showed no signs of distress or nervousness as she walked into the court today. Dressed in bright pink, the alleged Indian woman spy walked into the court to plead her innocence with a small smile playing on her lips.
The 53-year-old junior diplomat walked confidently as media persons desperate for access to her were pushed away by the police. This is her first public appearance since her arrest.
Gupta, who has been booked under the Official Secrets Act, has hinted at a conspiracy theory and blamed the authorities for framing her. Gupta, who was part of the Indian Foreign Service-B, was sentenced to 14 days of judicial custody during an “in-chamber” hearing by chief metropolitan magistrate Kaveri Baweja. The court was packed with lawyers and litigants.
The police have been asked to produce her before the court on May 15.
During the hearing, Gupta told the magistrate that she was not senior enough to have access to sensitive information or details of India’s plans in Afghanistan. Gupta was posted as the second secretary at the Indian mission in Islamabad, and was arrested on April 27 on charges of passing on information to the Pakistani secret service.
Soon after the 10-minute-long court proceeding, Gupta’s lawyer, Joginder Dahiya, denied all the allegations made by the police. Though Dahiya said that he has yet to get all the details out of his client, he maintained that his conversations with Madhuri Gupta showed that she had not fallen into any “honey trap”.
“She told me that nothing like that ever happened in Pakistan. I don’t know on what basis the police are making these allegations against her. The police have so far not placed sufficient evidence against her in the court and they want her custody to confront her with the records,” said Dahiya, adding that he was likely to file a bail application next week.
The police claimed that Gupta was not cooperating during interrogation. They want her in police custody for two more days to collect information on her alleged anti-India operations. Further, the police told the court that Gupta was changing her statement frequently and that this showed a deliberate attempt to mislead the investigations. They wanted to confront her with evidence to corner her during interrogations. This the court declined.
Gupta was arrested on charges of supplying confidential data on India’s plan in Afghanistan and names of undercover Indian agents posted in Pakistan. Police claimed that she was in regular contact with four handlers of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and was providing them information on a daily basis.
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