Lucknow, Jul 18 (IANS): The Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) has arrested a man from Mumbai for allegedly brainwashing a youth to join Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and pass on sensitive information, officials said on Tuesday.

The ATS arrested Armaan from Mumbai following inputs from a Gonda native, Mohd Raees, who was nabbed by the ATS on Sunday for his alleged links with the Pakistani intelligence agency.

ATS additional DG Naveen Arora said as per the statement of Raees, it surfaced that Armaan was the man who brainwashed him.

ATS officials said Armaan’s transit remand has been made, and he will be brought to ATS headquarters in Lucknow for interrogation where he would be confronted with Raees.

Sources said Armaan’s name cropped up during interrogation of Raees and recovery of data from his mobile phone.

“Raees had passed on photographs and videos of Babina cantonment in Jhansi to his handlers in Pakistan. Raees had received Rs 15,000 each on two occasions,” they said.

The sources added that Raees had gone to Mumbai in 2018 where he worked as a food delivery boy.

Later, he got the job of veneer polishing in a seven-star hotel in Mumbai where he had met Armaan who allegedly brainwashed him.

During interrogation, Raees told ATS officials that he had asked Armaan to get him a job in Saudi Arabia.

“Armaan had then given Raees a telephone number and told him that the man could arrange a job for him in Dubai. Raees then got a WhatsApp call from Pakistan in 2022 where the caller told him that a man named Hussain would call him and tell him about the work. Hussain had called Raees and told him that he was a spy from Pakistan and would give him a handsome amount if he helped him,” said the ATS sources.