A husband and wife of Indian origin have been sentenced to a jail term and heavy fines after a German court found them guilty of espionage for India’s foreign intelligence service.
NRI Affairs News Desk
Image courtesy: DW/S. Jordan
50-year-old Manmohan S. and his wife Kanwal Jit K. (51) were found guilty of spying on Sikh and Kashmiri groups in Germany, German news organisation Deutsche Welle has reported.
The couple was working on behalf of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
The court in Frankfurt sentenced Manmohan S with a one-and-half-year suspended jail term for illegal espionage activities. His wife Kanwal Jit K received a fine equivalent to 180 days of income for aiding and abetting illegal espionage activities.
Manmohan S started his espionage activities in January 2015 and his wife joined him in 2017, the court was told. The couple confessed to meeting RAW agents and handing them information. India’s foreign intelligence service reportedly paid them €7,200 (around A$11,000) for their services.
The German authorities indicted the two in April 2019.
In 2016, a German immigration official was also accused of spying on members of the Sikh community.