PUNE, India, 8 January 2008 — Convicted agent of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Syed Mohammed Desai is on a hunger strike demanding that he be immediately deported from India to his native Karachi.
Desai, who has served his time after being found guilty of spying as an ISI agent for Pakistan, is being detained at the Sahakarnagar police station here because he has nowhere to go. Police are holding him out of concern that he might commit a crime or meet with ISI agents who have recently been released on bail.
Desai has complained to the chief judicial magistrate through his lawyer that the proposal for his deportation was not forwarded to the Pakistan High Commission in New Delhi by India’s Home Ministry.
“I called the Pakistan High Commission to find out the status of my deportation and was told that the deportation can be expedited only after receiving the proposal from the Home Ministry,” Desai said.
The Pune police arrested Desai in June 1999 for allegedly passing vital information to the ISI. Desai’s wife too was arrested in Kolhapur district on charges of being an illegal resident. She reportedly confessed to the police that her husband was working for the ISI. Desai pleaded guilty in October 2007, and the court sentenced him to seven years in prison and a 50,000-rupee fine. By that time Desai had already spent over eight years in prison and he was released in October.
Legal experts say the Pakistan government is not interested in the deportation of Desai as it would amount to admitting Islamabad sends spies to India.
