Former army chief General (retired) MM Naravne’s unpublished memoir was in “illegal” circulation for months and had been uploaded on multiple social media and other websites, revealed a probe by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell, officers said on Thursday.
According to the police, the book was made available both digitally and physically before its release. Senior police officers in the Special Cell said they have now listed all the websites where parts of the book or the entire book were uploaded in PDF format. Police registered an FIR on charges of criminal conspiracy, among other offences, over the alleged illegal circulation of the manuscript in digital and other formats.
Police are yet to share details about the case FIR.
“All these websites are not only involved in piracy of a book but a criminal conspiracy of releasing critical information without the Ministry of Defence’s approval. People across countries had access to the book for months. We will be sending notices to these websites. We are still trying to find the source who planned the leak and initiated it. We suspect the initial leaks were uploaded using (.io) domain. Websites based in US and other countries also uploaded the book” said an officer.
Meanwhile, a Special Cell team visited the Gurugram office of Penguin Random House India on Wednesday. The team has now shared that they have prepared a list of 15 key questions for their initial probe.
“We have asked them for details about the ISBN, book cover and contents of the released soft copies. We also questioned them about the released hardback cover, asking who was involved in creating the cover, editing, and publishing the book. They have answered some of our questions and have sought time to answer other questions. The questioning at their office went on for at least two hours. We have placed our notice as well as questions related to our probe,” said a second officer.
The book was scheduled for publication in January 2024, and news agency Press Trust of India carried an excerpt from it in December 2023. Around the same time, Naravane also tweeted that his book “is available now” and pointed to a pre-order link from Amazon.
When asked about excerpts, police said they have not questioned any news agency for now and will write to Meta and Amazon during further probe.
The unpublished memoir is at the centre of a row that began last week after Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi brought up excerpts from the book by General (retired) Naravane on India-China relations in the Lok Sabha on February 2. However, Speaker Om Birla stopped him from citing excerpts from the book, after which the opposition created a ruckus in the House.
Later, Gandhi held a purported physical copy of the book on Parliament premises, as he doubled down on his claim that the Modi government mishandled the border dispute with China.
In a statement issued on Monday, Penguin Random House India said it holds exclusive publishing rights to the memoir and insisted that no copies have been released to the public.
“In light of recent public discourse and media reporting, Penguin Random House India would like to clarify that we hold the sole publishing rights for the book ‘Four Stars of Destiny’, a memoir by General Manoj Mukund Naravane, former Chief of the Indian Army. We wish to make it clear that the book has not gone into publication. No copies of the book — in print or digital form — have been published, distributed, sold, or otherwise made available to the public by Penguin Random House India,” the publisher said in its statement.
The publisher also warned that any version currently in circulation — whether in print, PDF or online — will amount to copyright infringement.
HT tried reaching the publisher but didn’t receive a response.
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