Frontier India Current Affairs

Written on April 10, 2008 – 5:19 pm | by FICA |

CBI on Wednesday filed a chargesheet against former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer Maj Gen (Retd) V K Singh, the author of the book “India’s External Intelligence: Secrets of RAW.” The chargesheet has been filed against him for divulging “top secret” information in his book which alleged corruption in India`s external intelligence agency.

Even the publisher of the book — India`s external intelligence, Secrets of RAW — Vivek Garg has also been named in the chargesheet. The chargesheet has been filed under the pretext of two different sections of the Officials Secrets Act, 1923, in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate here.

Following are the paragraphs selected by CBI to file the chargesheet.

•As regards details of Vision 2000, he (Brigadier S.K. Datta ) told me it was Top secret and I could go through the relevant extracts, which were in a file held in the custody of Brigadier Datta.

•The VSAT network was proposd to be established in two phases. In the first phase, a hub with about 100 teminals would be installed. This would provide secure voice and high speed data (64 Kbps), betwen the head quarters and important outstations. In the second phase, the network would be upgraded from 64 to 256 Kbp and expanded from 110 to 250 stations. The cost of the first phase was approximately Rs 20 crores, which had already been catered for in the Vision 2000 Project.

1) In a particular VHF monitoring station in Ladakh I found that they were not getting anything worthwhile from across the border because they were located in a valley, next to a gompa.

2) Barely two months after I joined, a severe earthquake devastated several towns in Gujarat, including Bhuj, where a station was located. Though none of our personnel lost his life, the building and some of their equipment was damaged.

3) Anand was sent as officer in charge of the transmitter station at Patparganj, on the outskirts of Delhi. The previous incumbent had been only a deputy secretary! SA Kumar was designated Director (DM) and made in charge of Internet monitoring, which wa still to be commissioned. Mittal was given a couple of projects that were still in the conceptual stage. Mannan continued as Director (TM) under Verma, while Rajagopalan became the Director (SM) under Yadav. Sampath had no specific job, and was told to look after the station in Patiala, under Yadav.

4) In April 2003, I had to go to Japan to attend a seminar. I was accompanied by another officer, who was an under secretary. Since Rabinder was looking after the region, he coordinated all the arrangements for our visit. I had to go his office a couple of times in connection with our visit. He was very helpful, and went out of his way to see that everything was tied up. The senior RAW officer in Tokyo was not present, but his deputy was told to look after us.

5) I visited Srinagar. Atop the Shankaracharya hill, I counted almost a dozen antennae, each belonging to a different intelligence agency or para military force.

6) As was to be expected, the department had a number of stations in foreign countries. These were usually referred to by three letter code signs, such as ABC, XYZ, RST, etc. The code signs were designed for use in messages or telegrams that were sent outside , as a security measure.

7) RAW officers are deputed to foreign missions in cover appointments to carry out the task of collecting political intelligence. In some cases, technical personnel of RAW are also deputed to man communications and gather SIGINT at selected locations.

In early 2001, Amar Bhushan returned from Tokyo and took over as Additional Secretary (Personnel), replacing Shanmugam who went on deputation to the Government of Mauritius.

9) Rabinder attempted to secure a posting to Washington, DC.

CBI claims that the book contains nearly six to eight pages of “critical information”, some of which were even “top secret”. The book exposes corruption in RAW.