The Official Secrets Act case against Major General VK Singh, who wrote a book on India’s external intelligence agency may have little to do with operational secrets leaked out by him.
NEW DELHI: The Official Secrets Act case against Major General VK Singh, who wrote a book on India’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing, and the CBI raid on Singh and his publisher may have little to do with operational secrets leaked out by him.
According to indications it may have been triggered more by allegations of Singh in his book that there was blatant misuse of money and resources by RAW officers without any accountability.
The RAW has booked Singh for violating Official Secrets Act in his book India’s External Intelligence: Secrets of RAW. Singh’s book, published by Manas Publications, was only the second dedicated book on RAW ever since India created its own external intelligence agency in the late ‘60s.
VK Singh had very little access to operational secrets actually. He was a joint director in the agency looking after communications, and worked with RAW only for a few years. Originally a Major General with the Army’s signals branch, Singh had gone on deputation to the agency.
Sources in the agency told DNA that what angered the RAW top brass was Singh’s audacity in commenting on the extravagance of the agency. In the book, he says the officers of RAW spend lavishly and live in expensive hotels around the world as they travel around with very little operational gains.
He argues that since RAW is funded by taxpayers’ money they have a right to know how their money was being spent. Singh had also pointed out how a contract for buying communication equipment for the Special Protection Group, which looks after Prime Minister’s security, had compromised national security interests.
RAW’s telecommunications division, where Singh worked, officially assisted the SPG in procuring the equipment from Motorola. He alleges that the system did not have encryption that would protect data. He wrote in his book that the “algorithms used by intelligence agencies are always indigenously customised”, but in SPG handset the encryption code was known to the Americans.
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