Additional District and Session Judge Jaisheel Pathak, however, acquitted him on the charges of waging war against the state due to lack of evidence.

“The documents seized from Afroz were in a secret code. An army officer confirmed in the court that the documents were defence secrets, but could not explain how Afroz managed to procure them”, said Irfan Ahmed Khan, Assistant District Government Counsel (Criminal).

The Special Task Force (STF) of UP Police had arrested Afroz from a cyber café in Rampur on August 11, 2006. Two hand-written letters in code, allegedly containing details about military movement in Meerut, Bareilly, Bikaner and Ferozepur, were recovered from him.

Later, police raided his rented house at F C Road in Rampur and seized his passport and secret documents. According to prosecution, during questioning Afroz confirmed that he was about to send these details to one Amir in Lahore when the police arrested him.

During the trial, 12 witnesses were produced before the court of whom three turned hostile.

Afroz’s passport showed that he had visited Pakistan on four occasions between 2001 and 2005. He said that on his second visit in 2001, he met some ISI officials at a guest house in Lahore where he was taught to use codes for passing on classified information.

On another visit in 2004, he was taught the use of codes for sending emails and also how to conduct cross-border financial transactions. Afroz said he had once received Rs 14,000 through Western Union Money Transfer.