IAS man grilled over leaking secret info to telco

In a development that may be related to the ongoing investigations into the 2G-spectrum allocation scandal, the Delhi police on Monday detained Indian Administrative Service (IAS) official Ravi Inder Singh for questioning over leaking of confidential information to a leading telecom company.

The special cell of the Delhi police booked him under the Prevention of Corruption Act, but clarified that Singh was not formally arrested, but only held for questioning.

"The raid was conducted after complaints that the officer (from the 1994 batch of the West Bengal cadre) was leaking sensitive information to some corporates," home secretary G K Pillai said in a statement.

Singh is the third IAS officer to be held in the current year over the charge of leaking sensitive information. Officers O Ravi, a joint secretary handling disaster management, and RS Sharma, a director-rank officer handling police modernisation, were arrested on similar charges in April 2010.

According to reports, Singh had been under surveillance for some time, with Pillai having authorised the police to tap his telephones. Several charges under the Prevention of Corruption Act have been slapped against Singh.

Singh's responsibilities included security clearances for the corporate sector, including telecom companies such as BlackBerry, with which the ministry is engaged in a long-drawn dispute over disclosure of information for security purposes. Singh's responsibilities required him to interact closely with the Intelligence Bureau.