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Delhi Police issues notice to Penguin over Naravane book row
Police said that a case was lodged under charges of criminal conspiracy among other offences over the alleged illegal circulation of the manuscript.
The Delhi Police Special Cell have issued a notice to Penguin Random House India in connection with the circulation of an unpublished memoir of former army chief General (retired) MM Naravane, officials aware of the details said on Wednesday, adding that they have sought information on how the book was made available in the “public domain without approval”.
“We are checking what the publishing house was doing and how the book was available in public domain without approval. We have formally approached the Penguin Random House with a written notice,” a senior police officer aware of the details said about the notice which issued early on Wednesday.
The officer said that a case was lodged on Monday under charges of criminal conspiracy among other offences over the alleged illegal circulation of the manuscript in digital and other formats.
According to the officer, the book was made available before its release both digitally and physically. “We want to know how a hardcover copy with Penguin Random House logo was made available to certain people. The book cover was also prepared allegedly by the publishing house as if it was available for sale. We are also planning to write to Meta and other social media platforms to ascertain how parts of the book were uploaded there, who uploaded them and who shared them,” the officer said. “This illegal practice has been a planned conspiracy which is being probed.”
To be sure, the book was to be published 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.
The unpublished memoir is at the centre of a row that began last week after Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi brought up excerpts from the book by general (retired)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. He was, however, stopped by Speaker Om Birla from citing excerpts from the book, following which the opposition created 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.
The Delhi Police had earlier shared a statement, saying, “We took cognizance of information found on various online social media platforms and news forums which claimed that a pre-print copy of the book ‘Four Stars of Destiny’ is being circulated. It was also reported that the necessary clearance for publication of this book is yet to be received from the relevant authorities.Upon verification, it was found that a PDF copy of a type-set book with the same title, and apparently prepared by Penguin Random House India Pvt. Limited, is available on certain websites and, also, some online marketing platforms have displayed the finished book cover as if it is available for purchase.”
