Madhuri Gupta's motivation was revenge

The Madhuri Gupta case is slowly unfolding, as investigators begin to make sense of the twisted life of the Indian High Commission staffer in Islamabad who was picked up for allegedly passing on information to Pakistani intelligence agencies.

Sources told rediff.com that during her interrogation, Gupta came as across as a very determined person who had no remorse about her actions.

Gupta told her interrogators that it was revenge that motivated her to do this. She denied having physical relations with her handler, Mudassar Rana (a Pakistani internal intelligence official), but acknowledged the fact that she did leak out 'not so sensitive' information.

Although her interrogators are trying to ascertain if she got any remuneration, Gupta is sticking to her stand that her actions were only aimed at seeking revenge against her higher ups.

Gupta's determination to take revenge did not start when she was posted in Pakistan. Prior to this, she was an assistant director at the Indian Council of World Affairs at Sapru House in New Delhi following which she served at the Indian mission at Kuala Lumpur, Baghdad and also Croatia.

Gupta said she was humiliated in service by her higher ups at every posting. Even after her arrest, she asked, "What has taken you people so long to get to me?"

Investigators say that she had been passing on information by using her contacts in the Reaserach and Analysis Wing. Earlier, she used to meet Rana and share the information directly. However, as time went by Madhuri grew confident and started sending out e-mails directly to the Pakistan establishment. This is what helped Indian agencies to track her down.

Investigations have revealed that Gupta sent out at least six e-mails, which contained information about the India's Afghan policy, Indo-Pak talks and also details of Intelligence officials posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Arab nations.

She managed to get a lot of loose information from her contacts in the Indian establishment, investigators say.

Initially, the officials did not suspect her when she sought information since it was very general in nature. However, things changed when she started asking for details regarding the military.

Sources say that information regarding Indian policies, which she has leaked out, is not really a worry since it was not specific. But the information that Gupta shared regarding some IB and RAW officials working undercover in other nations needs attention. Indian intelligence say that information may not be of much use to the ISI, since the officials named by Gupta were debriefed and a damage control exercise was undertaken once Indian agencies got wind of her activities.