Espionage

According to Merriam-Webstar Dictionary

Espionage      : the things that are done to find out secrets from enemies or competitors

                   : the activity of spying

Espionage is often part of an institutional effort by a government or commercial concern. However, the term is generally associated with state spying on potential or actual enemies primarily for military purposes. Spying involving corporations is known as industrial espionage.

We find espionage in ancient Indian history. The ancient writings of Chanakya contain information on deception and subversion. Chanakya's student Chandragupta Mauryafounder of the Maurya Empire in India, made use of assassinations, spies and secret agents, which are described in Chanakya's Arthasastra.

In Modern History we find intenseespionage activity during the Cold War between the United States and its allies and the Soviet Union and Chinaand their allies, particularly related to nuclear weapons secrets. Recently, espionage agencies have targeted the illegal drug trade and terrorists. Since 2008 the United States has charged at least 57 defendants for attempting to spy for China.

The latest news regarding espionage is in India.  The massive crackdown on corporate espionage in crucial ministries was the result of a four month long investigation conducted by the intelligence agencies at the directive of National Security Adviser AjitDoval.

AjitDoval, aged 70, Master’s in Economics, an IPS officer from 1968 batch of the Kerala Cadre. Doval was actively involved in the anti-insurgency operations in Mizoram, Punjab and Kashmir.Doval was in Pakistan for 7 years!! Doval spent long periods of time in disguise with the Mizo National Army in theArakan in Burma and inside Chinese territory. From Mizoram, Doval went to Sikkim where he played a role during the merger of the state with India.Dovalwas behind the success of Operation Blue Star. Doval was actually inside the Harimandir Sahib in Amritsar,during Operation Blue Star, when security forces were charging in to flush out terrorists from there.Doval was India's main negotiator with the hijackers of Indian Airlines flight IC-814 in Kandahar in 1999.Doval has the experience of being involved in the termination of all 15 hijackings of Indian Airlines aircraft from 1971 to 1999.  Doval headed IB’s Operations wing over a decade, and was founder Chairman of the Multi Agency Centre (MAC) and Joint Task Force on Intelligence (JTFI).Doval retired from service on 31 January 2005 from the position of Director, Intelligence Bureau.Doval was appointed as India's fifth National Security Adviser (NSA) on Friday, 30 May 2014.

Now we presume that the readers can understand why Prime Minister Mr.NarendraModiappointment of AjitDoval as India's fifth National Security Adviser (NSA).

Foreign companies operating in heavily regulated industries such as power, telecoms and defence often complain in private that domestic operators gain an unfair advantage through their ability to access information about forthcoming government decisions.Doval raised an alarm over the frequent reporting of classified matters in the media. A TV channel's report saying the Prime Minister was shown images of INS Arihant, a nuclear submarine, at a DRDO function proved to be the last straw. He then asked Research and Analysis Wing(RAW) to initiate action.

A corporate espionage scandal involving allegations of stolen documents from India's government deepened this weekend, following the arrests of employees at conglomerates controlled by four of the country's most prominent tycoons, including billionaire brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani.Crack-down on corporate espionage was initiated on 19^th Feb 2015. Delhi Police arrested two oil ministry officials, a Reliance Industries(RIL) staffer and two other middlemen for allegedly leaking classified government documents to energy companies for money. The crime branch sleuths arrested Asharam (58) and Ishwar Singh (56),both were employed as multi-tasking staff in the ministry, along with three of their accomplices. They were Lalta Prasad (36), Rakesh Kumar (30) and Raj Kumar Chaubey (39).

On 20^th December 2015, Delhi Police arrested two energy consultants – ShantanuSaikia and Prayas Jain, in connection with leaking of classified documents from the petroleum ministry. Saikia is a former journalist who runs a web portal on petroleum issues and has his office in Defence Colony, Jain runs his consultancy firm in Patel Nagar. Raids were conducted at several establishments.

Delhi Police Commissioner B S Bassi, while disclosing the development of the case, told that action was taken on a tip off that two persons along with their associates were involved in "procuring, obtaining and stealing the official documents by trespassing into the offices of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas at ShastriBhawan on February 17." They used to intrude in the night, he said. "A trap was laid and three persons came in an Indigo car near ShastriBhawan. Two persons alighted and went inside while the third remained sitting in the car. After around two hours, when the two persons entered the car, all three persons were apprehended," he said.

Total 12 persons arrested so far pertaining to Corporate Espionage. Former journalist Santanu Saikia, who is among the arrested,told reporters, outside the crime branch office, while being taken to court said "it's anRs 10,000 crore scam and it was a cover up."Delhi Police produced the seven accused before chief metropolitan magistrate Sanjay Khanagwal and said it required custodial interrogation of Lalta Prasad, Rakesh Kumar, Prayas Jain and Shantanu Saikia as "sensitive" documents have been recovered.The police alleged that "incriminating" documents of the Coal, Power and other ministries were recovered from the possession of the accused who were supplying these to certain corporate houses for their benefit.Regarding the other three accused - Ishwar Singh, Asharam and Rajkumar Chaubey, the police said they were not required for custodial interrogation, so they be remanded in judicial custody. The court after hearing the submissions, remanded the four accused in police custody till February 23 while the three others were sent to two weeks judicial custody.

There have been reports that these leaked documents could also have been used for trading in the stock markets, although there are no official words on this. "I am hearing it for the first time from you people that the stolen information was allegedly used for trading in the market. We have an integrated surveillance department. If there is an iota of truth in that, my people would already be on working on that," SEBI Chairman U.K. Sinha told media on 20^th February 2015.

Trades conducted on the basis of such confidential information, which would qualify as Unpublished Price Sensitive Information (UPSI), could amount to illegal insider trading as well as unfair and fraudulent activities. 

We are pretty sure many unknown facts will surface as day goes by. But one thing is clear by now; NaMO-Doval combination is on Swachh Bharat mission at Ministry Offices. 





Writer: Rajiv Chanda