Ex-envoy gets 3 years in jail for passing on sensitive info to ISI

NEWDELHI: Former diplomat Madhuri Gupta, who had served at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad, was on Saturday sentenced to three years in jail for passing on sensitive information to Pakistan’s ISI, with a Delhi court saying her actions caused a “severe security threat”.

Additional sessions judge Sidharth Sharma gave her the maximum sentence for the offences of spying and wrongful communication of information protected under the law, observing that an educated woman like her did not deserve any leniency.

Gupta, 61, who was the second secretary (press & information) at the high commission from 2007 till her arrest on April 22, 2010 during a visit here, was held guilty yesterday under various provisions of the Official Secrets Act. After passing the sentence, the court granted bail to Gupta to allow her to appeal against the conviction and sentence. She was suspected by intel agencies of spying for ISI since 2008. SHIMLA: Eighteen tourists from Gujarat were injured when the bus (GJ-18AZ-4671) they were travelling in overturned on the Mandi-manali highway near Ghagas on Saturday. The accident took place in Manglot village at 8am.

Initial reports suggested that bus driver could not negotiate a turn as he was speeding. The bus driver fled soon after the accident and continues to be at large.

As many as 41 tourists, mostly from Rajkot in Gujarat,