The Rajasthan Police on Tuesday said that a state government employee, who was earlier detained on suspicion of spying for Pakistan, has been arrested, PTI reported.

Shakur Khan, an assistant administrative officer at the district employment office in Jaisalmer, had been detained on May 28 for allegedly passing sensitive information to his handlers in Pakistan, The Hindu reported. He had been under surveillance for suspicious activities prior to his arrest, according to PTI.

On Tuesday, Inspector General of Police (Security) Vishnu Kant Gupta alleged that Khan had been in regular contact with persons linked to the Pakistani High Commission, particularly two men identified as Ahsan-ur-Rahim alias Danish and Sohail Qamar, The Hindu reported.

In May, Danish was declared persona non-grata by New Delhi and was asked to leave India. In diplomatic parlance, an official declared persona non-grata is deemed unwelcome by the host country.

“Khan was taken into custody for questioning a few days ago and was interrogated extensively at the central interrogation facility in Jaipur by multiple intelligence agencies,” PTI quoted Gupta as saying.

He claimed that Khan obtained Pakistani visas on several occasions and travelled to Pakistan with Danish’s assistance without reporting it to Indian authorities. He came in contact with agents from the Inter-Service Intelligence, Islamabad’s intelligence agency, during his time in Pakistan, Gupta said.

“He [Khan] collected sensitive information after returning to India and transmitted it to his Pakistani handlers through WhatsApp and other social media platforms,” The Hindu quoted the inspector general of police as saying.

Gupta added that a case was registered under the Official Secrets Act since the matter constituted a serious security breach and Khan was arrested, according to the newspaper. A court in Jaipur remanded him to police custody for seven days.

Khan, who hails from Badoda Gaon village in Jaisalmer district, had earlier served as a personal assistant to former minister Saleh Mohammed during the previous Congress government in the state, The Hindu reported.

Following his detention on May 28, Khan’s links to Mohammed had led to a political row.

However, Congress leader Govind Singh Dotasra said that being a personal assistant to a minister did not constitute a valid ground to implicate Mohammed.

“We have nothing to do with any criminal or anti-national activity,” The Hindu quoted Dotasra as having said. “If the police have received some inputs, they should investigate and take action against the accused.”

Khan’s arrest came amid heightened military tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad that escalated on May 7 when the Indian military carried out strikes – codenamed Operation Sindoor – on what it claimed were terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strikes were in response to the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, which killed 26 persons on April 22.

Over the past few weeks, at least 16 persons have been arrested across the country on allegations of spying for Pakistan and leaking sensitive information about Operation Sindoor.

On Saturday, the National Investigation Agency conducted raids at 15 locations in eight states that were suspected to be linked to alleged Pakistani intelligence operatives.