This seven-member history cell which can access all archival material of the Corps — the electronic warfare wing of the Army — and even war diaries of several regiments, is headed by none other than Major General (retd) V K Singh, the retired former RAW officer who was recently raided by the CBI and booked for alleged violation of the Official Secrets Act.

Evidently, the CBI, which admitted that it had not even read the book, will have a lot of explaining to do.

For, the author of Secrets of Research and Analysis Wing, it turns out, is a well-established chronicler of military history, with his ongoing book project on the Signals Directorate being the fourth official assignment given to him by the armed forces.

Even during his four-year RAW stint (2000-2004), the soldier-author continued his research in the Army Headquarters and the Signals Enclave to complete the second volume of the Corps of Signals History in 2006.

Today, Singh has temporary access passes to visit the Signals Enclave, Sena Bhavan and the Army’s offices in R K Puram for research on the Corps.

The first volume of the Saga of the Corps of Signals, published in 2001, was also authored by him, although the bulky volumes are meant for restricted circulation within the armed forces.

Says Singh: “I see myself as a chronicler of the armed forces and the RAW book is the only one out of character with others I have written. What I have revealed in this book is nothing in comparison to the kind of material I still have official access to. And nobody in the Army establishment has said anything to me about the OSA case. So for me, it is research and writing as usual.”

There are two other military books Singh has written. The first, his well-received book Leadership in the Indian Army with profiles of courage of 12 of the country’s best-known men in uniform, published by Sage Publications in 2005.

The Army issued a circular advising all units to purchase the book for their formations and libraries.

Singh says he turned in the manuscript of this book to the Army in 1997 and when he retired in 2002, the manuscript was returned to him, free to publish.

Then last year, he received a research fellowship (the Chhatrapati Shivaji Chair) by the United Service Institute of India (USI) for his forthcoming title Contribution of the Armed Forces to the freedom movement in India.

Singh says he has just handed over that manuscript and is now busy researching the third volume on the Signals.