According to police, the accused, Javed Ahmed (42), was arrested in old Delhi, near Jama Masjid, when he was handing over the documents to the agent on Tuesday. The agent, however, managed to escape, police said.

Police said they seized two in-house journals on ‘combat engineering’ of the Indian Army from Javed.

“We got a tip-off from intelligence agencies about Javed. He was in touch with an ISI agent, Siddiqui, and was handing over secret information to him for the last two years,” said DCP, Special Cell, Alok Kumar.

Ahmed had joined the Army in 1984 and retired in 2001. In the year 2006, he got in touch with Salauddin, a resident of Hapur in Ghaziabad UP. Salauddin introduced him to an ISI agent, Siddiqui, in Delhi. Since then, Ahmed had met Siddiqui six times to hand over documents, police said.

“Siddiqui would analyse the importance of the information and offer ready cash. He was earlier paid Rs 15,000 for passing some documents,” DCP Kumar said.

In January 2008, Siddiqui had directed Javed to collect secret books from the Army Training Centre in Roorke, UP. Javed went to Roorke, where he developed contacts, who helped him get the two books. On Tuesday, Javed had to deliver the books to Siddiqui, police said.

Ahmed has been booked under the Official Secrets Act and a case is registered with the Special Cell.