Govt’s key spy hardware supplier under CBI watch

The first one went out in September 2003.

And a few months later, Secure Telecom floated two new companies, Shoghi Communications and Sidhi Tech Services. And together, these two went on to procure larger contracts worth crores from the government. Gupta himself admitted to The Indian Express that last year alone, these two companies sold the Government equipment worth Rs 23 crore.

The original Ashok Vihar office of Secure Telecom—two storeys in a DDA residential block, from where Gupta began his business in the early ’90s—is sealed off clumsily with bricks. But the two new companies have impressive offices on two floors of Ansal Bhavan in Connaught Place, a new office in NOIDA and a factory in Shoghi, near Shimla.

On the payroll of these two companies is a staff of 100 employees that includes retired officers from the Ministry of Defence and Military Intelligence.

Last month, the CBI sent a fresh, confidential advisory to intelligence and investigating agencies telling them about its chargesheet against the firm in an alleged case of forgery and cheating. This particular case involves alleged forging of ‘‘end-user certificates’’ in the supply of encryption equipment to the National Security Guard (NSG).

This advisory, available with The Indian Express, signed by Joint Director Ashwani Kumar, has now gone to the high-powered National Security Council (NSC) too.

Said a senior NSC member: ‘‘Security implications and siphoning to private parties will also be looked into. If required specific instructions will be passed.’’

The NSC, sources said, has written to the Ministry of Defence as well as other user agencies in Government, and the firm’s alleged siphoning of banned equipment to private users as well as other security implications of the case are under examination.

The Indian Express has found that despite these warnings, the firm is thriving—and has links to several other firms. On its website, for example, Secure Telecom, which Harish Gupta says he has ‘‘shut down’’ still offers an impressive array of snooping equipment, ranging from interception and analysis systems, encryption software and hardware, as well as frequency monitoring and debugging devices.

Not only this, its website displays a long list of what it calls its ‘‘channel partners.’’ These are firms located across India in cities like Chandigarh, Shillong, Chennai and Secunderabad.

Posing as buyers, when The Indian Express contacted agents located in NOIDA and Chennai, they were willing to sell selected equipment and said that new ‘‘channel partnerships’’ were to be launched in more cities, including Bangalore.

The website of Shoghi has an entire section on the merits of the passive GSM monitoring systems, obviously a hot-selling item, and unlike foreign companies, nowhere does Shoghi clarify that the equipment is meant for sale only to Government agencies.

Worried about the fallout of CBI’s move on his business, Harish Gupta says ‘‘vested interests’ were spreading allegations about his staff and nature of operations.

‘‘If any army officers were working with me immediately after retirement, they were only working on product expositions, never as full-time staff. People who cannot take my rise in the sector are spreading all his.’’

Meanwhile, Government agencies say they are cracking down although RAW officials say that only ‘‘verbal instructions’’ have been issued to stop purchases from Shoghi.

Said an Intelligence Bureau official: ‘‘We have suspended purchases from the group for the time being.’’ The CBI, too, says it has stopped all transactions while the Delhi Police has formally written to the CBI for ‘‘further details’’ before they decide on ‘‘formal blacklisting.’’