By IANS
New Delhi : A day after searching the residence of Maj. Gen. (Retd) V.K. Singh, a former official of the country’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Saturday raided the publishers of his book revealing RAW’s functioning.
“We are conducting raids on Manas Publications in Daryaganj area (central Delhi), which published Singh’s book – ‘India’s External Intelligence – Secrets of RAW’,” a CBI spokesman told IANS. Singh had revealed the working of the RAW and also questioned the leadership and accountability of the agency in his book.
Late Friday, CBI sleuths had swooped down on Singh’s Palam Vihar residence in Gurgaon and seized his computer, diaries and passport after registering a case under the Official Secrets Act for the details revealed in his book.
Singh, a former army officer who worked with RAW between 2000-04, was also questioned for hours at his residence.
Sources said Singh was booked under the Official Secrets Act, following advice by the Cabinet Secretariat.
In his book, he had questioned the erstwhile Vajpayee government’s decision to hand over the transcript of the telephonic conversation between Pervez Musharraf and his chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Mohammed Aziz, to then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif in June 1999.
After the tapes were made public, the Pakistani establishment got wind of the technology being used by the Indian intelligence to tap their internal communication and in no time the leak was plugged, eventually leading to information drying up, said Maj. Gen. Singh in his book.
In his book, Singh also wrote of the communication systems procured by the Special Protection Group for the prime minister from an American firm in 2001 and how the RAW leadership failed to carry out due diligence.
Singh also questioned the lack of parliamentary control over RAW’s functioning and its financial autonomy.