Former NIA officer arrested for allegedly leaking secret documents to Lashkar-e-Taiba
Arvind Digvijay Negi received a gallantry award in 2017 for his investigation into the Hurriyat terror funding case.
The National Investigation Agency on Friday arrested its former Superintendent of Police Arvind Digvijay Negi for allegedly leaking secret documents with an overground worker of terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, PTI reported. Overground workers help arrange logistics for militant groups.
Negi received a gallantry award in 2017 for his investigation into the Hurriyat terror funding case, according to ThePrint.
The agency said that Negi was arrested in connection with a case registered in November pertaining to a widespread network of overground workers of the terrorist outfit.
“During investigation, the role of AD Negi, IPS, SP posted at Shimla (since repatriated from NIA) was verified and his houses were searched,” the National Investigation Agency said, according to The Indian Express.
Negi was arrested under Sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 121 (waging, attempting to wage, abetting waging of war against the government), and 121A (conspiracy to commit offences punishable by Section 121) of the Indian Penal Code and Sections 17 (raising funds for terrorist act), 18 (conspiracy), 18B (recruiting of any person or persons for terrorist act) and 40 (raising funds for a terrorist organisation) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.
Negi maintained his innocence during the interrogation, according to The Indian Express.
In November, the agency had arrested Jammu and Kashmir activist Khurram Parvez in the same case. Parvez has been accused by the National Investigation Agency of criminal conspiracy and waging war against the government.
On Friday, the agency said that it had discovered that official secret documents of the agency were leaked by Negi to another accused person in the case, according to PTI.
Negi, a Himachal Pradesh-cadre officer, has been involved in probing several high profile cases during his tenure at the NIA.
The officer was part of the probe in the case of DSP Davinder Singh, who was caught with Hizbul Mujahideen militants in January 2020, the case of People Democratic Party leader Waheed Para and cases of recruitment by Islamic State in India, according to ThePrint.
Apart from cases in Kashmir, Negi had also been associated with cases such as the Samjhauta Express blast case and the 2007 Ajmer Dargah blast case. He was also a part of the 2008 Malegaon blasts case but was removed later, according to The Indian Express.