Peshawar, Feb. 16: The Pakistan government has revealed that a Mumbai engineer missing for over three years is in army custody and faces trial in a military court after having illegally crossed over from Afghanistan to meet a girl he had befriended online.

Hamid Nehal Ansari will be tried by a military court, the government confirmed to Peshawar High Court yesterday, prompting it to dispose of a case on his disappearance. Sources said Ansari, 31 now, was charged with espionage.

According to PTI, Ansari was sentenced to three years on Sunday and shifted to a Peshawar prison.

Qazi Muhammad Anwar, the counsel for Ansari's mother Fauzia, told the court the techie had visited Afghanistan for job-related prospects in November 2012. While there, Ansari had come into contact with the woman based in Kohat on social media, crossed over and was picked up from a hotel in the Pakistan border town on November 12, 2012, a local media report said today.

A reply filed by deputy attorney-general Musarratullah in court confirmed that Ansari was in custody. The official did not specify the charges but sources claimed Ansari had confessed to having illegally entered Pakistan for espionage.

The sources added that Ansari had seven Facebook accounts and 30 email addresses, and had been found to possess sensitive documents.

Ansari, also an MBA, earlier taught at a Mumbai management college. His mother Fauzia claimed he was in touch with some Pakistani friends who had suggested that he cross over into Pakistan from Afghanistan without a visa.

Fauzia had first filed a missing complaint with Mumbai police and contacted the Afghan consulate in the city. She then moved the human rights cell of the Supreme Court in Islamabad, which forwarded the case to a commission on disappearances in March 2014.

The commission directed the provincial government to form an investigation team to trace Ansari. An FIR was lodged and the case was heard for over 18 months before the government revealed he was being held in the country.