Journalist, Jamia Student and Nepali man arrested for spying and passing sensitive information to Chinese intelligence
In a massive development, Delhi Police Special Cell arrested a freelance journalist named Rajeev Sharma after he was suspected of spying for the Chinese intelligence, sources revealed on Saturday.
As per sources, Chinese intelligence had tasked the journalist with sharing sensitive information in exchange of over $500 everytime he shared. “He was found to be in possession of some defence-related classified documents,” Sanjeev Yadav, DCP, Special Cell, said.
Sharma, a senior journalist who worked for various newspapers and news agencies like The Quint, Global Times, The Tribune, Free Press Journal, Sakaal, etc. was arrested on Monday and was produced the next day before a Delhi court, which sent him to six-day police custody.
After his arrest, the Delhi Police seized his laptop, his mobile phone and are scanning his call detail records to know with whom he was in contact. Sources said that Delhi Police got secret information about his involvement in procurement of classified documents and hence he was arrested by the Special Cell under the Official Secrets Act.
In line with this, he had also shared some classified documents with a Chinese woman in New Delhi recently who shifted to the city in 2013 and took admission in Jamia Milia Islamia for a course of 2-3 years.
The woman identified as Qing Shi used to travel to China alot and is a Chinese Intel agent for whom the Nepali man Sher Singh used to work for as an associate.
Interestingly, Sharma runs a YouTube channel called “Rajeev Kishkindha”, which has tens of thousands of followers. On the day of his arrest, he uploaded two videos. One of the videos claimed that China would still do “mischief” despite talks between the two countries at the foreign ministers’ level. The other video deplored the state of journalism in the country.
He was also one of the journalists who last year said they had been alerted about their phones being targeted for surveillance through the Israeli spyware Pegasus.
