German prosecutors charge Indian national with spying for RAW
Indian national Balvir S. is suspected of acting as 'an intelligence agent' and accused of spying on Indian nationals in Germany
May 14, 2020
German prosecutors have charged an Indian citizen with espionage on behalf of India's foreign intelligence agency.
The Indian national Balvir S. is suspected of acting as "an intelligence agent," the federal prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe said in a statement.
On January 10, 2020, the Federal Prosecutor's Office brought charges against the Indian citizen Balvir S. before the state security senate of the Higher Regional Court (OLG) Frankfurt am Main.
The man admitted to being an employee of the Indian International Intelligence Service Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW) in January 2015.
Balvir S. is accused of spying on Indian nationals in Germany - mainly political dissidents, Sikhs community and Kashmir movement.
According to the federal prosecutor's office, the suspect was connected to the Indian intelligence service through regular telephone and personal contacts with his management officer based in Germany.
In this way, the accused provided the requested information in numerous cases by early December 2017.
The same Frankfurt court convicted an Indian couple for spying on the same communities last December. The husband was handed a suspended prison sentence of 18 months for acting as a foreign intelligence agent, and his wife was fined 180 days' wages for aiding him.
