New Delhi, Sept 21: The Indian Express on Wednesday reported how officials of the National Technical Research Organisation (NTRO), the country's premier technical intelligence agency set up after the Kargil intrusion, hve been found using secret service funds to illegally film their women colleagues in the toilet.
This happened three years ago but has surfaced only now, the IE report said.
The report says, t some women staffers who worked in NTRO's temporary office in Hauz Khas in New Delhi, complained about a spycam fixed in their toilet with the feed from the camera being accessed by a computer manned by the agency's counter-intelligence and security unit.
The NTRO, The Indian Express has confirmed, conducted two internal inquiries but did not inform the police or the Prime Minister's Office, which the agency reports to.
The first inquiry was handled by a senior woman officer following which a formal inquiry — through written orders — was authorized.
That inquiry was headed by V K Mittal, the technical head of NTRO who has since left the agency and has moved the Supreme Court alleging mismanagement and financial impopriety there.
Mittal told The Indian Express that he submitted a report to then NTRO chairman K V S S Prasad Rao calling for “suitable legal action” in the case. The spycamera was said to have been bought with secret service funds.
“I took the help of a lady officer who questioned four or five of the women who were victims. But I found that the hard disk of the computer where the feeds from the camera were stored had been overwritten and technically destroyed. I do not want to comment further,” said Mittal.
The computer which recorded the spycam feed, sources said, was manned by an ex-IAF Corporal who was on leave when a woman staffer — on deputation from the Ministry of Defence — discovered the images and alerted those who figured in them.
Sources said some frames of the Corporal himself — adjusting the camera — were found. His house was put under surveillance and his antecedents checked after which he was asked to leave the organisation. The women were also sent back to their parent cadres.
Despite several attempts, NTRO director P V Kumar was not available for comment. The agency's Director of Security and Counter Intelligence, under whom the matter falls, also did not respond to messages and calls.
The Indian Express contacted one of the women who filed the complaint. She said that she didn't want to speak on the subject.
Former IPS officer Anil Choudhary, who served as NTRO's advisor during the relevant period (2007-2008) and was involved in investigating the incident, said: "Since there were serious moral issues involved, we took strict action against the person we thought was the culprit. We decided to handle the matter internally and not go to the police."
