PTI

New Delhi, July 26: Former external affairs minister Jaswant Singh on Wednesday rebutted news reports that the US mole he had referred to in his book was scientist V S Arunachalam.

"He (Jaswant Singh) has told me that he has not identified anybody by name as a US mole," BJP's deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Vijay Kumar Malhotra said.

Malhotra, who cited Singh's remarks at a press conference on Tuesday that the American mole he had referred to in his memoirs A Call to Honour was a civil servant, said Arunachalam did not hold that position as the scientific advisor to the then defence minister.

"When I spoke to him (Singh), he rebutted this reference in media reports (about Arunachalam). He said he had not disclosed the identity of the mole to anybody in the party," Malhotra said.

Singh, who is writing another book on the 1992 Ayodhya events, has denied suggestions the mention in 'A Call to Honour' of a mole in the PMO during the Narasimha Rao government was a stunt to sell his memoirs.

Both the former external affairs minister, who has been challenged by the Prime Minister to reveal the identity of the so-called mole, and the BJP have over the past two days tried to play down the significance of the much-hyped reference, insisting it did not warrant any serious probe.