The Delhi Police on Monday said it has filed a first information report in connection with the alleged circulation of an unpublished memoir of former Indian Army chief MM Naravane, PTI reported.

The FIR comes in the backdrop of disruptions in Parliament since February 3, with the Opposition protesting against Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi not being allowed to quote an excerpt from the memoir about the political decision-making during the 2020 border tensions between India and China.

In a statement on Monday, the police said that it had “taken cognisance of information circulating on social media platforms and online news forums claiming that a pre-print copy of a book titled Four Stars of Destiny is being circulated without mandatory clearance from competent authorities”.

The police said that it had been reported that the necessary clearance for the publication of the book was yet to be received from the relevant authorities, India Today reported.

“Upon verification, it was found that a PDF copy of a type-set book with the same title and apparently prepared by M/s Penguin Random House India Pvt Ltd is available on certain websites and, also, some online marketing platforms have displayed the finished book cover as if it is available for purchase,” the magazine quoted the police as saying.

The police said that an FIR has been registered with the special cell, which will carry out an investigation into the purported leak or breach of a yet-to-be-approved publication.

Publisher Penguin Random House India, which holds the rights for Four Stars of Destiny, clarified that the book has not gone into publication, and maintained that it did not make any copies of the book public.

“Any copies of the book currently in circulation, in whole or in part, whether in print, digital, PDF, or any other format, online or offline, on any platform, constitutes an infringement of PRHI's copyright and must immediately be ceased,” Penguin Random House said, adding that it would take legal action against the unauthorised dissemination of the book.

The excerpts from the book that Gandhi had been attempting to quote from in the Lok Sabha had been reported in December 2023 and were quoted by The Caravan magazine on February 1.

BJP MPs had been objecting to the Congress MP speaking on the matter, arguing that he was quoting from a book that had not yet been released.

In his memoir Four Stars of Destiny, Naravane wrote that on August 31, 2020, he had sought “clear direction” from India’s political and military leadership for the Army to respond to Chinese tanks moving towards Rechin La in eastern Ladakh.

Naravane said that hours after first seeking orders, he had been told by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh that he had spoken with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and that the military was to do whatever it deemed appropriate.

This implied that the Indian response was to be “purely a military decision” and that “the onus was now totally on [him]”, the former Army chief wrote.

The incident Naravane referred to had taken place amid the border tensions between India and China in eastern Ladakh.

The book was to be published in April 2024, but has not been released yet. In October, Naravane said that the publisher was waiting for the Union government’s approval.

The Union government has not commented on the contents of Naravane’s memoir.

However, on February 2, the defence minister said in Parliament that the book would have been published if its contents were accurate, adding that Naravane could challenge it in court if he thinks that his memoir has been unjustly barred from being released.