Pak Man, Who Came to Gujarat for Wife’s Fertility Treatment & ‘Became an Indian’, Held for Spying

Labhshankar Duryodhan Maheshwari, a Gujarat resident who originally hailed from Pakistan, was arrested by Gujarat Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS) over suspicions of spying on Thursday.

Labhshankar, 53, is said to have arrived at Tarapur town in Gujarat’s Anand district in 1999 with his wife for “fertility treatment” from Pakistan. He stayed in Gujarat, became a successful businessman and attained Indian citizenship in 2006. The couple, however, did not have any children.

Gujarat ATS arrested him for allegedly helping Pakistani agents access sensitive information about the Indian Army, an Indian Express report said.

According to ATS, Labhshankar helped Pakistani agents access an Indian SIM card, which was used to hack the phones of Indian defence personnel’s kids in Army schools. The ATS said he did this in return for Pakistani officials’ help in obtaining visas to the country for members of his family.

After coming to Tarapur in 1999, Labhshankar initially lived with his in-laws, who had migrated from Pakistan earlier. He then applied for a long-term visa and gradually established himself as a successful businessman with the help of his in-laws, defence sources were quoted by Indian Express as saying.

In 2022, he is believed to have been “cultivated” by Pakistani agents during the processing of his Pakistani visa on a visit to Pakistan.

Sources have reason to believe that Labhshankar was in touch with a Pakistani intelligence agency during his six-week stay with his parents.

After returning to India, he is said to have facilitated the delivery of a SIM card registered in the name of Mohammad Saqlain Umar Tahim, a Jamnagar resident, to a Pakistan embassy contact, ATS further added.