By IANS
New Delhi : Maintaining that he had written nothing in his book that was inimical to the interests of the country or compromised its strategic secrets, Maj. Gen. (Retd) V.K. Singh, a former official of the country’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), whose house was raided Friday, said he had done no wrong.
“I have not disclosed anything that is sensational or that would embarrass our tactical secrets,” Singh told IANS Saturday, a day after sleuths from the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) raided his residence.
A CBI team collected vast quantities of documents and correspondence from Singh’s residence during the three-hour search.
“Let us see what they (CBI) come out with,” said Singh, who has been meeting his lawyers.
In his book “India’s External Intelligence: Secrets of Research & Analysis Wing” that was published June, Singh criticises India’s external intelligence agency’s lack of leadership, accountability and its mishandling of some key events.
Though Singh is yet to be formally charged, officials in the intelligence establishment and the CBI are reportedly studying what sections of the Official Secrets Act to invoke.
One contentious section in the book that could land Singh in trouble, say highly placed sources, is his description 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 on it.
“If he has mentioned the frequency that the SPG is using, which he is not supposed to, then it could spell trouble,” said sources.
Last year, the CBI charged RAW computer and training director, Brigadier (retd) Ujjwal Dasgupta and former senior RAW operative, Mukesh Saini, currently lodged in Tihar Jail, for allegedly passing secret information to the US intelligence agency CIA.
Another computer analyst, S.S. Paul, from the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS), was also charged in an espionage case.