January 24, 2006	Tuesday	Zilhaj 23, 1426

NEW DELHI, Jan 23: India’s intelligence bureau (IB) had put a reigning chief minister of a northern state under scanner following suspicions of links with a Pakistani intelligence agency.

The startling revelation has been made by Maloy Krishna Dhar, a police official who had a three-decade-long stint with the intelligence agency, in a book to hit the stands soon. Dhar, who was involved with counter-intelligence operations, said the CM belonging to a non-Congress outfit had to be put under surveillance ‘for maintaining questionable clandestine links’ with the agency.

Mr Dhar’s earlier book, ‘Open Secrets: India’s Intelligence Unveiled’, created ripples in many circles with revelations about the extensive network of CIA and KGB among the political class, as well as political espionage, including the phone-tapping IB was asked to do.

In his fresh offering Fulcrum of Evil, Dhar, a former IB joint director, has not named the chief minister, saying simply that he was someone from ‘central-northern India’, and, importantly, still in office. When pressed, however, he said that the person concerned is from a north Indian state, and does not belong to Congress.

While Mr Dhar refused to be drawn out, his assertion that the chief minister in question does not belong to Congress represents a clean chit to the heads of Congress-ruled states of Himachal, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi and Uttaranchal. Asked about the reluctance to name names, Mr Dhar said: “I won’t be able to prove it in the court if the person concerned files a suit. Do you think the IB would reveal the operational as well as other details to the court?”—By arrangement with the Times of India