Posted on 09/21/2007 9:45:04 AM PDT by nuconvert
Former Indian spymaster charged over revealing book
by Pratap Chakravarty
Indian police on Friday charged a former top official from the country's external intelligence agency for allegedly disclosing state secrets in a book he wrote after retirement, officials said.
Federal detectives from the Central Bureau of Investigation also raided the home of V.K. Singh after slapping him with charges under India's tough Official Secrets Act, which would carry a minimum prison term of seven years.
"The searches are still continuing and he has been booked under section five of the act," which prohibits publication of classified information, bureau spokesman G. Mohanty said.
"It will be too premature to disclose any more details," he added amid reports the agency initially made a mistake by raiding the home of another man with the same name.
Singh, a retired army general, worked as joint director for the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and was widely known as one of the key brains behind upgrading the external arm of India's spy service.
Police sources told AFP that the charges were made on the "advice" of the Cabinet Secretariat, a powerful state organ which takes its orders directly from the office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
In his recently published book, "India's External Intelligence: Secrets of RAW," the former spymaster blamed the 2005 escape of a renegade RAW agent to the United States on "certain lapses" of the government.
The book also alleged political interference and corruption in the agency, including in a multi-million dollar purchase of communication equipment for use by RAW.
RAW was set up in the early 1980s when Indira Gandhi was premier, and is staffed by hundreds of military and civilian personnel. Its funding or operations cannot even be questioned by parliament.
Singh held a sensitive position in the agency when India and rival Pakistan fought a mini-war in Kashmir in 1999. The RAW played a key role in intercepting Pakistani military communication during the six-week combat, the book said.
Singh in the book criticised India's previous administration for allegedly handing over some of the intercepts to then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif at the height of the fighting in Kashmir's Kargil peaks.
"These revelations compromise our operations and should never have been put in a book," a RAW official said.
Among the tapes purportedly given to Sharif were conversations between Pervez Musharraf -- then army chief and present Pakistan president -- and a commander directing the attacks on Indian troops in Kargil, it claims.
The publisher of the revealing book, Manas Publications, condemned the charges against Singh.
"The raid on the author is an open exploitation and torture of an honest, brave and bold officer as well as of literary circles," said Manas spokesman Vivek Garg.
"All writers and officers from all the (secret) services must join together to oppose this unfair activity of the government," he added
The dummy is supposed to write these books from abroad. Ask Phil Agee. (Or leak them to a ghost writer traitor reporter from the NYTimes)
The dummy is supposed to write these books from abroad. Ask Phil Agee. (Or leak them to a ghost writer traitor reporter from the NYTimes)
Factual errors in that article-RAW was formed in 1968 by Indira Gandhi’s government as an independent branch from the Intelligence Bureau.
Thank you for added info and corrections.
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