Before Jyoti Malhotra, there was Madhuri Gupta: She was convicted in 2018 for spying for Pakistan

Many years before YouTuber Jyoti Malhotra made headlines for espionage charges, a foreign service officer’s case had shaken the corridors of power in India.

In 2010, Madhuri Gupta, an Indian diplomat serving in Pakistan at the time, was arrested for spying for Pakistan. The investigation found that she was honey-trapped by Pakistan-based intelligence operatives while she posted in the country.

Gupta was convicted of espionage in 2018 and was sentenced to three years in jail. She died in 2021 at the age of 64 while her appeal against her conviction was pending in the Delhi High Court.

In espionage, a honey trap refers to the usage of romantic or sexual relationships to get information or access via targeted individuals. Such information could be extracted either via blackmailing the targeted person —who could be a government official, business executive, or politician— with the evidence of their illicit romantic or sexual relationship or by manipulating them emotionally.

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What was Madhur Gupta spy case?

Two operatives of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) were involved in honey-trapping Gupta. They laid the trap when she was posted at the Indian High Commission in Islamabad as the Second Secretary (Press and Information).

While Gupta was arrested in 2010, she had been passing information to her Pakistani handlers since 2008, according to the prosecution’s case against her.

Two ISI operatives, Mubshar Raza Rana and Jamshed, recruited Gupta in 2008 and she passed on information till her arrest in 2010.

After her arrest, the Delhi Police recovered e-mails sent to ISI handlers from various electronic gadgets, such as laptops and Blackberry mobile phones. She also passed on sensitive information personally to ISI handlers.

The court noted at the time of her conviction that, in one of her emails to her ISI handlers, she had promised to collect information about hydroelectric projects in Jammu and Kashmir.

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“It is seen that the accused was unable to give such information but her intention of passing on such information and her going to Jammu after giving the false excuse of attending marriage points out her intention of helping the enemy country. She had been giving information regarding various postings of officers of defence, MEA and HCI as well as their family particulars, which could have caused danger to the life and security to said officers and their family,” the court said.

How ISI turned Madhuri Gupta into a spy

Gupta’s case has all the elements of an espionage thrillers — real stories are, after all, often better than fictional tales.

Jamshed, who went by the name of Jim, was the one who became romantically involved with her with the clear intention to honey-trap her. He was several years her junior and, as per an email cited by The Print, she planned to marry him in the future.

A woman journalist had put Jamshed and Rana in touch with Gupta after they helped get a book she was searching for, according to The Times of India.

The newspaper reported that Gupta was so much into the relationship that she was willing to covert to Islam to marry Jim.

Jamshed and Rana “skilfully exploited Gupta’s professional grievances, manipulating her emotions to compromise her loyalty”, noted Raj Shekhar Jha in ToI.

Once the Ministry of External Affairs got inputs that Gupta was compromised as she was showing interest in matters outside her domain, the ministry called her to Delhi on the pretext of needing her for the arrangements of the upcoming SAARC Summit. She was arrested from her house after she arrived in Delhi.