Was expelled German an agent? Probe is on
Intelligence agencies are probing if the German national expelled for 'snooping' around the Koodankulam nuke plant despite having a tourist visa was acting as an 'agent' of a hostile force.
Sonnteg Reiner Her-mann, according to home minister P. Chidambaram, was sent back on February 28 for indulging in activities not consistent with his tourist status.
Now, investigating agencies have found he was in touch with anti-Koodankulam campaigners and was gathering information through news clippings and personal interviews regarding India’s nuclear projects, weapons systems and areas of public agitation and conflict.
“Hermann stored the huge information he had been gathering during his several India trips on his two hard disks, one of two terabytes and the other of one terabyte. We found 10 camera memory cards with him, which he used to take hundreds of photographs,” an officer involved in the probe said, pointing out that the 49-year-old often visited India in the past decade and made six trips to Nagercoil (close to Koodankulam) since 2008.
The officer said Hermann was at an anti-nuke demonstration outside the district collectorate in Nagercoil on December 23 last year and took several photographs.
“He focused on areas of conflict across our country, as if to gather intelligence regarding people and organisations agitating against the government. He also had keen interest in our weapons systems; for instance, there were many paper clippings and other details relating to the Agni-II launch.”
Another officer said Hermann claimed he worked for IBM but was jobless for the past three years. He slipped into India for his latest visit before the ‘look-out notice’ against him, issued in January this year, got “fully logged into airport systems”.
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