Top Home Min official arrested for leaking info

Office & residence of Ravi Inder Singh, Director of Internal Security, were raided after suspicion about him being a mole.

Zeenews Bureau

New Delhi: In a development reminiscent of the Madhuri Gupta espionage case, the office and residence of a top official in the Union Home Ministry were raided by the Delhi Police on Monday on suspicions of his involvement in leakage of sensitive information out of the ministry. He was later arrested under the Official Secrets Act.

The sources said charges of abuse of official position,
pecuniary benefits and illegal gratification under the
Prevention of Corruption Act could be slapped against the
official.

The office and residence of Ravi Inder Singh, Director of Internal Security, were raided by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police after Intelligence Bureau tipped off the Home Ministry about a mole.

Sources said that he had allegedly indulged in criminal
conspiracy with some telecom firms on the issue of number
portability of mobile phones which comes into effect from
November 25 beginning with Haryana.

The officer has been under surveillance for about a
month.
"The raid has been conducted following allegation that he
has been leaking sensitive information out of Home Ministry,"
Home Secretary G K Pillai told PTI.

Delhi Police remained tightlipped with its
Special Commissioner P N Aggarwal claiming that no one had
been arrested so far.

The police questioned Singh and took records of his phone calls and scores of documents from his possession.

As a senior officer, Singh had access to almost all sensitive information related to the country’s security situation. He had access to important information on Maoists, J&K terror and North East situation as well.

A 1994 batch IAS officer from the West Bengal cadre, Singh may have leaked out the information. He is also an MBBS by qualification.

However, it was not immediately clear whom Singh was
passing the information.

Singh is the highest official to have come under the scanner for allegedly being involved in leakage of sensitive information. The raids came after intelligence agencies picked up sensitive Indian data through counter-espionage operations in Pakistan.

Earlier this year in April, diplomat Madhuri Gupta, who was posted at the Indian embassy in Pakistan, was caught for passing on secretive information to the ISI. A case is currently filed against her in Delhi.

-PTI inputs

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