Thameem Ansari, 35, the Pakistan spy in Tamil Nadu arrested in Tiruchy with digital dossiers on Indian defence installations, was an active SFI man and doing spy work for money. “We don’t think he has any militant connection. We are looking for two of his associates,” said a senior officer of the police department.
Ansari claimed he was exporting vegetables to Colombo and happened to meet an official of the Pak mission there through a friend. “But we believe that his export business itself was a cover,” said the official.
The spy was SFI district secretary for some time. Though he is married, he had been spending a lot on girlfriends, sources in ‘Q’ branch said after scrutiny of his spending pattern. Of late, he was closely associated with a Thanjavur-based woman advocate suspected to have assisted him in preparing the documents seized from him, sources in Tiruchy said.
Ansari had completed B.Com. and M.A. Tamil and was active in the TN science forum of the CPI(M).
“He has been flying to Colombo, Singapore and Maldives regularly, Colombo being his most favourite destination,” a Chennai official noted.
The ISI handlers in Colombo had always met him at malls and restaurants. “We believe he was in touch with them since the beginning of 2011,” the official said.
Ambitious Ansari started various businesses in Thanjavur before he fell prey to the sugar-coated words of a Colombo-based ‘Haji’, a dark complexioned man sporting a grey beard and a white cap. He first ran a pharmaceutical agency and when that failed, took to dealing in packaged water.
“Ansari claimed he was exporting potato and onion to Colombo. But he never kept the stock in the building I rented out to him,” said Mr Amalraj, the owner of William complex.