An Indian court convicted four people Wednesday of spying on a military installation for arch-rival Pakistan, a charge that can carry the death penalty.
The four men, including one Pakistani and an Afghan, were found guilty of spying for Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency on the Chandipur missile launching centre on the Bay of Bengal in Orissa state.
"The convicted persons were charged with sedition ... under the Indian Penal Code and the offence may amount to life imprisonment or a death sentence," Calcutta Judge Alakendu Mukherjee told AFP after issuing the verdict.
The court also acquitted five people on the same charges after a year-long trial.
One of those convicted, Pakistani national Ahmed Ali, was arrested in September 1999 in Dum Dum on Calcutta's northern outskirts.
Police said they seized incriminating documents from Ali's rented flat, including a diary that included the telephone number and address of a senior Indian intelligence officer.
Information Ali gave under interrogation led to the arrest of the three other convicts, Afghan national Mohammad Yaqub and Indian citizens Mrinal Poddar and Bapi Biswas, officials said -- Calcutta, (AFP)
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