LONDON: Two days after TOI broke the story of how India ignored anti-secrecy activist Julian Assange’s request for an asylum, with the ministry of external affairs in New Delhi saying it had no record of such an appeal, the WikiLeaks founder gave TOI the receipt issued by the Indian high commission in London for his letter seeking refuge.

The receipt establishes that the high commission indeed received a letter from Assange on May 24, 2012, seeking political asylum in India, which contains the request in relation to asylum along with a security protocol. Assange told TOI that the letter was hand delivered to the office of the high commissioner to London, Dr J Bhagwati, and received by his office (the receipt is available with TOI).

The receipt from the high commission to Assange’s emissary says, “This is to confirm that a letter was delivered by hand to Dr Manmohan Singh , care of Dr J Bhagwati, for and on behalf of Julian Assange , founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks.”

When asked to comment, MEA spokesman Syed Akbaruddin maintained his department had no record of an asylum request, saying if it was a letter intended to be forwarded to the PMO, that would have been done.

The receipt shows that a letter addressed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was received by the high commissioner on May 24, 2012, just weeks before Assange moved in to the Ecuador embassy which granted him political asylum on June 16, 2012.

Assange had told TOI that he was disappointed and saddened that India, known for upholding human rights, never responded to his pleas for asylum despite “several requests”. Assange told TOI that not only were letters to India sent by post but also delivered by hand.

Assange also said India should not make the same mistake in regard to America’s most wanted Edward Snowden for exposing how the US was among the top five countries most extensively monitored by the American National Security Agency (NSA) under the prism programme, and grant him asylum.

Snowden is on the run from the US which considers him a traitor for leaking details of a top-secret US surveillance programme. He is believed to be in Hong Kong but has been changing hotels to keep his location secret. Assange calls Snowden a hero for exposing how America was snooping into people’s emails, phone calls, messages en masse and across the globe.

In March this year, the NSA recorded 6.3 billion pieces of intelligence from computer networks in India, placing it fifth on the list of most extensively monitored countries. Iran topped the list with 14 billion pieces of intelligence collected from it. Pakistan was third with 13.5 billion, Jordan was third with 12.7 billion and Egypt was fourth with 7.6 billion. Assange says he is still willing to take asylum in India if such an offer comes.

