Mole in MHA ?

[Austin]

Home Ministry official a Pakistan spy?

The Special Cell of Delhi Police raided the North Block office and residence of Ravi Inder Singh, a 1994 batch IAS officer of West Bengal cadre, who was working as Director in the sensitive Internal Security division.

"The raid has been conducted following allegation that he has been leaking sensitive information out of Home Ministry," Home Secretary G K Pillai told

A Home Ministry source said Singh was passing sensitive information to commercial firms in connection with security clearance. The officer has been under surveillance for about a month.

[Rahul M]

split to create new topic.

[chetak]

Unless the intelligence guys are camouflaging it to further investigations without hindrance, it just looks like some initiative and endeavor to cash in on some strategic information for his personal business enterprise.

After all, the guy has reached where he is/was due to his diligence and now wants to cash in like all his pals in the telecom ministry.

On the face of it, doesn't look like the pakis are involved.

Most of the telephoned in such sensitive ministries are tapped and where suspicions arise, the calls are actively monitored, both office and residence.

[Kanson]

There is lot of issues of security breach by more and more from especially w. bengal cadres/officers/gov servants. One theory is that these candidates are infiltrated by ISI from Bangladesh.

[prithvi]

There is lot of issues of security breach by more and more from especially w. bengal cadres/officers/gov servants. One theory is that these candidates are infiltrated by ISI from Bangladesh.

oh...ok...now WB cadres are more prone to corruption..!!! give me a break please....

[Kanson]

^ I'm not saying that. I'm only pointing at the infiltration of Bangla ISI moles into the gov system taking advantage of the prevailing situation.

[Rahul M]

kanson, this is beyond stupid. I can equally ask why people called rabinder or ravinder end up betraying the country, it's nonsense.

chetak ji, times now reported that they got a lead to him through a counter intel ops on pakis which showed a few MHA documents he had access to.

^ I'm not saying that. I'm only pointing at the infiltration of Bangla ISI moles into the gov system.

why would WB cadres be more susceptible to that ? the guy is a sikh FYI.

[chetak]

chetak ji, times now reported that they got a lead to him through a counter intel ops on pakis which showed a few MHA documents he had access to.

I stand corrected saar.

[Raghavendra]

must be the officer who leaked the telecom scam tapes, congress labeling him traitor and arrest him to prevent more leakage, if we go by indications there are more tapes which have not been released, dates on some tapes show they were recorded last year, there must surely be more such tapes which congress want to prevent from leaking

[Rahul M]

how do you know ? if you don't have proof then you shouldn't be posting this as gospel.

[Kanson]

kanson, this is beyond stupid. I can equally ask why people called rabinder or ravinder end up betraying the country, it's nonsense.

chetak ji, times now reported that they got a lead to him through a counter intel ops on pakis which showed a few MHA documents he had access to.

^ I'm not saying that. I'm only pointing at the infiltration of Bangla ISI moles into the gov system.

why would WB cadres be more susceptible to that ? the guy is a sikh FYI.

Cool down. Pls go throu the statement again. Does my statement implies WB cadres are susceptible ? I'm talking of the *infiltration* of ISI moles from *Bangladesh*. Rabinder Singh was bought out by CIA. There is no comparison here.

[sarkar]

Yeah this is stupid.. but can't ignore the funny side... All "Ravi-inder"s... uff

It will be interesting to find whether he started his lucrative business of selling country just after reaching this post
or
was being told to reach this post ages ago by his handlers.

Remindes me of a movie.. Departed.

[Rahul M]

please cut out the patronising tone.
this is the offending part 'There is lot of issues of security breach by more and more from especially w. bengal cadres/officers/gov servants.' (out of interest, how many more security breaches from WB 'cadres/officers/gov servants' do you know of ? )
I do stand by my statement.

if you have issues with my moderation kindly hop over to the forum feedback thread.

a piece of advice if I may, sometimes it's better to step back from a heat of the moment stupid comment than defending it, which makes it much worse.

[Kanson]

Glad to know that you are moderating and not merely participating in the discussion. If you take the statement out of context and cut out the remaining statement then.....I can only clarify my statement which i did. Rest i leave it to others.

I'm not in the business of terming yours is stupid or mine.

[Austin]

Agreed those WB cadet , Bangladeshi spies etc were not in good taste.

Right now some news channels are claiming he was providing information to RIM but this is a fast moving news.

But good work by CI they managed to find this person and nail him down.

[Rahul M]

sometime back some very important reports from MHA on naxals were being leaked to the naxal leadership.
and if the media got it right this person was not in MHA at the time. so there might be others.

still it's better that the moles be called out now rather than we hearing about them from some autobiography in 2035.

[ASPuar]

Seems the ministry itself had asked for him to be placed under surveillance. Im no conspiracy theorist, but there must be some reason why.

[JE Menon]

It's the Blackberry issue... plus info on full portability of numbers was being leaked apparently.

[sum]

Home Ministry official held for leaking sensitive info

According to the Intelligence Bureau, Singh had been under surveillance for nearly a month now after the agency had tipped off the Delhi [ Images ] Police about his actions.

After being kept on watch for a month, the special cell of the Delhi Police conducted a raid at his residence and his office. Incriminating documents were recovered from his possession.

Home Secretary G K Pillai said that the raid was conducted following an allegation that he was passing on sensitive information.

Sources in the IB say that he was privy to many sensitive files in the government and when the raids were conducted he was handling the blackberry issue for the government.

The Government of India [ Images ] had decided to crackdown on Blackberry over security concerns and certain telecom companies, which were dealing with this service, had sought information on what the government had planned to do on this issue.

In addition to this the police are also probing his links with a telecom firm on the issue of number portability, which comes into effect in a couple of days.

Number portability, which comes into effect first in Haryana, allows a mobile user to change his service provider while retaining the same number.

Sources also maintained that Singh was passing on sensitive information to some firms and the information that was allegedly passed on included security clearance-related issues.

"Intelligence agencies have a video clipping of Singh meeting with his party in a five star restaurant in the capital. This clipping also resulted from the surveillance that was mounted on him after the home ministry allayed fears to intelligence agencies of his leaking information," a ministry source said.

The Delhi Police are, however, tight-lipped on the investigation and say that they will need to probe further.

"It is true that he was handling some files relating to the Pakistan desk. But, so far, we only have information about his leaking of information to corporate houses. From initial probe it does not look like he was passing on Pakistan-based information," a senior special cell officer said.

Seems to be more of a "economic" offense than a Paki mole case

[Sanku]

X post from Strat fora

I would request the denizen’s to hold their judgment on this case. And read things other than the stated. The guy is considered to have a near meritorious and clean track record - a rarity in the bureaucracy, if you believe our Attorney General.

The images shown on tv reflect a Doctor with an equanimous reticence. That does not come easy.

Media on the other hand has been shifting blame from him being a paki-agent to a corporate-agent to lord knows what.

I am afraid, but the timing and the alacrity of the officials to nab him leads me to believe that he may be the ‘deep throat’ in the 2G scam.

P.S: Radia tapes very clearly reveal that the corrupt coteries have shown no remorse in destroying careers of honest officers by slapping false investigation on them.

[abhischekcc]

The transcript (as well as audio of the tapes is on this site:

http://openthemagazine.com/article/nati ... o-you-want

http://openthemagazine.com/article/nati ... -to-anyone

http://openthemagazine.com/article/nati ... ar-clearly

http://openthemagazine.com/article/nati ... -with-raja

http://openthemagazine.com/article/nati ... -tell-them

[Sanku]

abcc, the pages do not open (overload) can you please tell us what they say?

[shyamd]

Folks, this could be bad news. I have a strong feeling the company in question is Huawei who had their contracts relating to border states cancelled many months ago. They certainly fit the
Bill because huawei was engaged with home ministry to convince GoI that they are not a security threat. But the NSC and PC put their foots down.

If it is true then its very bad news because chini intel could be involved, if this guy was dealing with TSP, naxal issues etc.
It fits the bill, perhaps this was just the beginning and there was a long term plan to get tsp, j&k info.

Another businessman who was meeting with the chap has been arrested. He's a businessman who was the middleman and is from WB.

Initial reports pointing a desi telecoms company. Let's hope its not Huawei because that entails a massive security risk in itself.

[ASPuar]

The news flowing is that Ravi Inder Singh was asking for sexual favours in addition to monetary gratification. "Software" and "Gurh" respectively.

[jamwal]

Ugh..would you kindly refrain from making guesses till some good information is available ? Next thing I expect to read is that he is an alien in disguise planning takeover of planet Earth by his kind.
IMHO, this thread should be locked for now and unlocked when required.

[ASPuar]

I was not "guessing", just stating what today's news is saying..

http://www.mid-day.com/news/2010/nov/24 ... gh-sex.htm

What's software? You're wrong

By: Mohit Sharma Date: 2010-11-24 Place: Delhi

That's the code word alleged Home Ministry informer Ravi Inder Singh used to describe paid sex

Not every IAS officer is a mere pencil-pusher. At least not Ravi Inder Singh. The Director in the Internal Security Division of the Home Ministry was formally arrested on Tuesday by the Delhi police's Special Cell. Initial probes indicate that Singh ran a commission racket demanding cash and sex from corporates in return for getting their files cleared. A broker, Vineet, was also arrested yesterday night, for being a co-conspirator.

Sources in the MHA said that Singh was using five phones and all of them were being tapped, besides the broker's phone. "Four of the phones were allegedly given to Singh by Viniee on which they communicated," MHA sources said.

Sources further said that the conversation was always done in code words to avoid any problems. Singh referred to paid sex as 'software' and the hotel venue as 'hardware'. Words such as 'ladoo', 'gud' and 'prasad' would be used for money transactions.

"The broker was asking for a few crores from some corporate companies to get a specific job done," the MHA sources added.

Singh was detained on Monday evening following which searches were carried out at his office and residence.
"This is corporate snooping and clear violation of conduct rules. Whether it is a corruption case is to be examined. He has not been arrested yet and last night he was allowed to go after questioning.

Today he came back and is being questioned again. His property and bank balance, are being looked into but national security has not been compromised," top Home Ministry sources said.

Talented man

"Singh was handling almost 5,000 security-related cases in four sectors of telecom, mining, shipping and surface transport and it is being investigated to whom he was leaking the information," sources said.
MHA sources, however denied Singh's connections with the recent conversations between the ministry and the makers of Blackberry. The sources said that the broker has been trying to make "deal" with a telecom company on behalf of Singh for providing security related information from the ministry in return of a few crore rupees. "The company's application related to security clearance in connection with Mobile Number Portability was pending with the ministry. Though Singh was not in a position to give security clearance to any company, he could have facilitated such clearance by giving favourable inputs to officials.

[ASPuar]

And while I know that some on this board think he might be being framed, there is ZERO evidence for that (leading me to believe that these conspiracy theories are the real guesses), than there seems to be, suggesting that news reports might be correct. Seems to really be a scam a day these days.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/indi ... z16BgMvZ00

MHA 'mole' sought cash, sex as bribe

Rahul Tripathi & Himanshi Dhawan, TNN, Nov 24, 2010, 12.44am IST

NEW DELHI: Investigations have revealed that Ravi Inder Singh, the 1994 batch IAS officer in the home ministry detained on Monday, ran a commission racket demanding cash and sex from firms in return for getting their files cleared.

Singh and a middleman, Vineet, were arrested on Tuesday night. Special cell sleuths said Singh's conversations reveal an elaborate modus operandi that included transactions through Vineet, code words and use of many SIMs.

Singh, who worked in the sensitive internal security department of MHA, would remain anonymous in the deals. While briefing his go-between, a businessman named Vineet, Singh referred to paid sex as 'software' and the hotel venue as 'hardware'. Words such as 'ladoo', 'gud' and 'prasad' would be used for money transactions.

Singh's cover was blown by a US-based telecom company which had been recently given clearance for FDI in mobile number portability (MNP) in a joint venture with an Indian firm. The file had come to Singh since the New Jersey-based firm also operated in Pakistan. According to MHA, the company whose India office is in Gurgaon, was cleared on merit on November 12.

Police said that Vineet, who runs a food processing unit in West Bengal, had known the IAS officer for 10 years and allegedly cut deals on Singh's behalf. The cops have picked up Vineet and booked him for criminal conspiracy. He is likely to be arrested soon. Singh is also under detention and Delhi Police has registered a case under prevention of corruption act against him.

A police officer said, after the US-based firm complained that a bribe had been demanded for clearing its file in the home ministry, a surveillance was mounted to zero in on the official involved. The telecom firm reportedly informed MHA officials about Vineet after which his mobile phone was tapped. He used to operate using different mobiles and often changed his SIM cards. Singh, while talking to him, never revealed his own name so it became difficult for us to identify the man," said a senior police officer.

"It was when the file reached Singh for clearance, he started making calls to Vineet. Singh also passed information about the company to the middleman," the officer said. The police team then zeroed in on Singh and learnt that he had allegedly cut deals with other companies as well. Singh himself who sported five mobile phones. Singh was handling almost 5,000 security-related cases in four sectors.

[Raghavendra]

Zero tolerance to disloyalty, Chidambaram warns moles
http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed ... 32778.aspx

Cracking the whip on moles in security establishments, Home Minister P Chidambaram on Tuesday warned action against anyone helping corporates to snoop. Taking a serious note of any misconduct by government officials, he expressed zero tolerance to such matters. His comments came against the backdrop of Ravi Inder Singh, an IAS officer, arrested for allegedly leaking sensitive information from the Home Ministry.

Chidambaram said the government was aware of the alleged leaking of information by the officer and kept him under surveillance for some time before he was arrested.

"He (the officer) had been placed under surveillance and at an appropriate time, he was apprehended," he told reporters.

Chidambaram said if someone in the government was helping corporates to snoop, government would take appropriate action.

"We have taken action in last two years. Two officers of the Home Ministry have been arrested, suspended and prosecuted. There will be zero tolerance to corruption, zero tolerance to disloyalty to government and zero tolerance to any misconduct," he said.

The 1994-batch West Bengal cadre IAS officer, posted as director in the internal security division of the Home Ministry, had allegedly leaked information to a telecom company for illegal gratification.