Better to die than have my patriotism questioned: Munawwar Saleem

Sravani Sarkar

NewsBits.in

Bhopal: Rajya Sabha MP Munawwar Saleem, whose personal assistant was arrested on Saturday in the espionage racket involving Pakistan High Commission staffer, has said that he would rather die than have his patriotism questioned.

Speaking to NewsBits.in, the Samajwadi Party MP who is currently in his hometown Vidisha in MP, said that if he (Saleem) was found even a bit involved in the racket, he should be immediately given death sentence.

“This is a very emotional situation for me to have to actually say all these things. My family has been deeply involved in freedom movement and especially anti-Pakistan campaign. That is where I come from,” Saleem said.

As for Farhat, his PA, who was arrested, Saleem said that he was recruited only 11 months ago after due verification conducted through the Rajya Sabha secretariat.

“I always had people of Vidisha on my staff, but my PA got a good job and left and when this man applied, I sent his resume to RS secretariat asking for averification. Only then I took him in,” the MP said.

“Now rather than looking at the loopholes in their verification process, I am under question,” he added.

Saleem said that also Farhat had been working for other SP MPs including the late Munawwar Hasan.

“However, I am ready to fully cooperate with entire probe and anyone found guilty should be punished. This is sensitive and I won’t say more,” the MP said.

Madhya Pradesh minister Vishwas Sarang, while reacting to news of Farhat’s arrest, had said that the Samajwadi Party, its supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav and UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav should come up with explanations in the matter.

Farhat was detained by Delhi Crime Branch on Friday and formally arrested on Saturday as part of the espionage racket involving a Pak high commission staffer.

The Pak staffer Mehmood Akhtar, now expelled, was caught receiving secret documents on October 26. Two others, Maulana Ramzan and Subhash Jangir, residents of Nagaur, Rajasthan, were held along with Akhtar. Another accused Sohaib was detained in Jodhpur.