'Corporate snooping': IAS officer quizzed, close aide arrested

The official Ravi Inder Singh has still not been arrested. He is likely to be suspended very soon and other action would follow subsequently, officials said.

A businessman from West Bengal, who was acting as a broker on behalf of Singh, a 1994 batch officer who was working in the home ministry, was picked up from a five star hotel last evening and subsequently arrested.

The businessman 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, a home ministry official said.

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 higher officials.

Singh, working as director in the sensitive Internal Security division, was under surveillance of Delhi Police's Special Cell for more than a month and was detained yesterday 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 we are examining. He has not been arrested and last night he was allowed to go after questioning. Today he came back and is being questioned again. His property, bank balance, are being looked into but no national security has been compromised," the official said.

Singh was handling almost 5,000 security-related cases in four sectors of telecom, mining, shipping and surface transport and it was being investigated to whom he was leaking the information (official), sources said.

The official's case has no connection with the recent conversations between the ministry and the makers of Blackberry.

Secretary (Internal Security) in the Home Ministry Utthan Kumar Bansal described the incident as "very serious" and "matter of grave concern".

Bansal said Singh was "misusing" his official position for commercial interests.
Home Ministry officials said Singh was using five mobile phones -- some of which were found in possession of the arrested businessman - while making conversation. He was also using coded words like 'prasad' and 'laddu' for describing money.

The Internal Security Division, where Singh is working, is considered to be the most sensitive wing and handles all crucial issues related to the country's security.