New Indian Express

New Delhi, Sep 22: Former spy Major General (retd) V K Singh is in trouble for revealing too much in his controversial book on the functioning of Research and Analysis Wing.

CBI sleuths on Friday landed up at V K Singh's Gurgaon residence, seized his computer, searched his rooms for papers and booked him under the Officials Secrets Act. The CBI was acting on the complaint filed by Cabinet Secretariat, RAW's controlling authority.

General Singh, who worked as joint secretary between 2000 and 2004 in RAW before he retired, came out with the book India's External Intelligence: Secrets of RAW couple of months back. It was an account of events during his tenure in the agency.

There were demands for banning the book, printed by Delhi-based Manas Publications, as it brought in public details about the functioning of secret agency. But these demands became silent on Friday as the CBI officials walked into V K Singh's house.

Sources said that another spy B Raman had come out with Kaoboys of RAW which was more explicit but no action was taken against him. The CBI on Friday raided the home of a former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) official, Maj Gen (retired) V K Singh, a signals officer, after registering a case against him under the Officials Secrets Act.

The book is critical about the embarrassing incident of RAW spy Rabinder Singh defecting to the US and pointed fingers at agency's own men for the fiasco.

It also revealed the secret behind the taped telephonic conversation between Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf and general Mohammed Aziz during the Kargil War. He claimed that the source had dried up after the tapes were made public.

The move to seek the ban was initiated by RAW chief Ashok Chaturvedi after holding discussions with the National Security Advisor M K Narayanan. There is no word as yet on whether the government wants the book withdrawn from the shelf.

But some who have worked with Singh said he was never in the inner circle of the agency privy to crucial information. V K Singh was only technical officer and was not part of the key decision making process.

This is not the first time a book written by a spy has caused a stir. The government was uncomfortable when a former director of intelligence bureau M K Dhar came out with the book Open Secrets - India's Intelligence Unveiled. The former intelligence officers, under the rules, have to take clearance from their agency before printing the book.

V K Singh's book might have annoyed the RAW but it was nowhere in the best sellers category. Sources said that book sold well till it was being talked about in the media. Once the stories disappeared, the sales came down drastically in the last month and a half.