JOIN US The businessman from West Bengal, who was acting as a broker on behalf of Singh, was picked up from a five star hotel on Monday evening and subsequently arrested.
He has been trying to clinch a “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 (MNP) 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 was handling almost 5,000 security-related cases in telecom, mining, shipping and surface transport and it was being investigated to whom he was leaking the information, sources said.
Home Ministry officials said Singh was using five mobile phones and some of which were found in possession of the arrested businessman. 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.
U K Bansal, Secretary (Internal Security) said the involvement of such a high ranking officer is “a matter of concern.” Bansal said Singh was “misusing” his official position for commercial interests. The IAS officer has now been booked under the Prevention of Corruption Act and a case under Officials Secrets Act may also be registered against him. Singh is understood to be involved in the ministry’s talks with Blackberry over security issues.