October 18, 2001	Thursday	Rajab 30, 1422

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KOLKATA, Oct 17: An Indian court convicted four people on Wednesday of spying on a military installation for Pakistan, a charge that can carry the death penalty.

The court found the four men, including one Pakistani and an Afghan, guilty of spying for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) on the Chandipur missile launching centre on the Bay of Bengal, in Orissa state.

“The convicted persons were charged with sedition ... under the Indian penal code and the offence may amount to life imprisonment or a death sentence,” Judge Alakendu Mukherjee said after issuing the verdict.

The court also acquitted five people on the same charges after a year-long trial.

One of those convicted, Pakistan national Ahmed Ali, was arrested in Sept 1999 at Dum Dum, on Kolkata’s northern outskirts.

Police alleged they seized incriminating documents from Ali’s rented flat, including a diary that included the telephone number and address of a senior Indian intelligence official.

Police claimed the information Ali gave under interrogation led to the arrest of the three other convicts, Afghan national Mohammad Yaqub and Indian citizens Mrinal Poddar and Bapi Biswas.—AFP