IB officials are also examining how Saini was allowed to quit to join a private software firm when he was a key member in charge of a sensitive cybersecurity initative. Government approval is needed for such a transition within two years of retirement. Saini is said to have denied any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police have arrested NSC secretariat systems analyst S S Paul. Sources said that IB is investigating the alleged links between Saini and the US national whom he is said to have “introduced” to Paul at last year’s Indo-US Cyber Security Forum meeting in Delhi.

Around the time Paul was picked up, the office of Brigadier Ujjwal Dasgupta, RAW’s Director for Computers and

Training was raided, as first reported by The Indian Express on June 17. Dasgupta, also involved in the Indo-US Cyber Security Forum, has been on extension in RAW and has now been told that his services are not required. He is also under watch.

Saini’s unit reports to the National Information Board headed by National Security Advisor M K Narayanan. Narayanan, when contacted today, said: “I am not familiar with the details of the case.”

It was Narayanan who had started an inquiry into the alleged spying case of RAW’s Joint Director Rabinder Singh. Singh, despite being under watch, fled the country in May 2004 and is now believed to be in the US.

Source of the breach & possible damage

Investigators are zeroing in on the NSC secretariat as one of the key nodes in the breach. What’s the NSC secretariat?

... contd.