The Hindu : Front Page : CIA mole moved out over 120 files from office

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Tuesday, Aug 03, 2004

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Front Page

CIA mole moved out over 120 files from office

By Praveen Swami

NEW DELHI, AUG. 2. Top officials at the Research and Analysis Wing allowed a suspected Central Intelligence Agency mole in their ranks to remove upwards of 120 files from his office just weeks before he fled the country — apparently oblivious of the fact that mole-watchers in the same organisation were attempting to nail the officer for espionage. Rabinder Singh, a senior RAW officer who is believed to have defected to the United States in May, may have used the opportunity to move classified information out of the organisation's headquarters in New Delhi.

In April 2004, even as staff of RAW's Counter Intelligence and Security (CIS) Division were assessing Mr. Singh's activities as a double agent, the officer applied for permission to remove large numbers of files from lockers in his office. Mr. Singh claimed that the files contained personal records (including property papers), income tax documents, and bank statements. There was, Mr. Singh said in his application, no longer enough space to store the papers in the office. By the time Mr. Singh filed his request, RAW chief C.D. Sahay had already notified National Security Advisor Brajesh Mishra of his suspicions about the officer.

With CIS Division staff processing the application in a routine manner, permission was granted for Mr. Singh to move the files to his residence. A senior RAW official said scrutiny of the files may have been cursory, given the enormous mass of paperwork involved. Interestingly, other CIS Division staff who were watching Mr. Singh's espionage activities were simply not notified of the application. Neither, the source said, was Amar Bhushan, the RAW Special Secretary in charge of all counter-espionage and counter-intelligence work, informed of Mr. Singh's request.

In retrospect, Mr. Singh's request should have set off alarms in RAW's counter-intelligence setup. Officers in RAW — as in other security and intelligence organisations — often apply for permission to move personal files from their offices to their homes. Such requests are generally made when an officer is being posted to another city or on the verge of retirement. Mr. Singh, however, had no evident reason to clear his cupboards. Then the sheer volume of files he asked to move made careful scrutiny of their contents extremely difficult.

As things stand, investigations into the case seem to have reached something of a dead end. Indian intelligence has established that Mr. Singh flew out of Kathmandu on May 4, shortly after he went on leave. However, nothing has so far been learnt of his final destination. Sources told The Hindu that Mr. Singh used his own passport to travel out of Nepal, a discovery which contradicts earlier reports suggesting he used a false travel document issued by the U.S. RAW has yet to explain why Mr. Singh's passport was not confiscated when it became clear the espionage charges against him were credible.

RAW's handling of the affair has sparked off a major succession battle. Mr. Sahay is due to retire at the end of 2004, and some have been calling for an outsider to be drafted in to bring about wide-ranging reforms in the beleaguered organisation. One candidate is R. Narasimhan, the second-most senior officer in the Intelligence Bureau, who recently lost a battle to take charge of the internal intelligence organisation to Ajit Doval. Should efforts to bring in Mr. Narasimhan succeed, he would bypass two Special Secretaries, Mr. Bhushan and Jyoti Sinha.

Seeking to protect their flanks, top officials at RAW have been arguing that the failure was the outcome of indecision at the highest levels of the National Democratic Alliance Government. RAW officials say that Mr. Mishra was briefed on the issue but only ordered the termination of Mr. Singh's services on May 14, well after he had fled the country. Furthermore, the organisation claims, Mr. Mishra's orders were subject to approval by the new United Progressive Alliance Government. One possible explanation offered by intelligence insiders is that the NDA Government wished to soft-pedal the issue, fearful of an election-eve diplomatic showdown with Washington.

None of this, however, explains why RAW did not notify the Intelligence Bureau of its concerns about Mr. Singh. The I.B.'s high-specialised Special Enquiries Staff, a group of surveillance experts, is normally used to monitor the activities of both Indian nationals and diplomats believed to be engaged in hostile intelligence activities. SES personnel from the Intelligence Bureau were tasked with nailing suspects in at least two espionage scandals in the past, one involving a RAW official headquartered in Chennai, and another revolving around a top Intelligence Bureau functionary.

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