India’s most infamous spy, who betrayed own country for America
Recently, an American computer system administrator Edward Joseph Snowden was in news for revealing American government’s secret dealings that posed threats on the privacy of common people. In fact, Snowden became a reason of diplomatic distress between Russia and the USA as the took refuge in Russian Federation. Snowden has been variously called a hero, a whistleblower, a dissident, a traitor and a patriot.
But unlike the American defector, one Indian highly rank RAW official who defected to the USA, is never bothered except few stories in Media. It is about Rabinder Singh. He was a joint secretary in India’s most effective external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Before joining RAW, Rabinder Singh was an army man. He was acting as double agent for CIA, the American external intelligence agency. As a double agent, Rabinder Singh was passing classified information about India’s position to Americans for more than 15 years. When RAW was alerted his suspicious activities, he flew to the USA via Nepal.
The book ‘Escape to Nowhere’ written Amar Bhushan, illustrates his perfect escape story via Kathmandu route:
“Ravi Mohan and (wife) Vijita landed at Dulles International Airport (Washington) at 3.40 am. As they came out of the aircraft, they were received a man who introduced himself as Patrick Burns. He whisked them away, bypassing immigration and Customs and took them to a secluded house in the heart of Maryland woods… the fugitives stayed incognito, while documents were being arranged to permanently wipe out their real identity. Three weeks later, Ravi and Vijita were set free to live their American dream as fake individuals, burdened to carry the sin of betraying their nation for the rest of their lives….”
Interestingly, Journalist Harish Chandola discovered the double agent’s face of traitor Rabinder Singh. He was exposed accident, when Chandola was talking to an American diplomat. This expose was in his early stage of Rabinder’s espionage for CIA. Harish Chandola reported it to the Indian ambassador in Damascus, Ramesh Mulye. No action was taken against this double agent then.
But when Rabinder finally defected to USA 2004, then UPA government choose to ignore it and entire defection episode didn’t create major diplomatic fall-out between India and USA. It shows how India’s diplomatic intelligence was ignored during the Congress regime.
Interested in internal and external security of India. Security Analyst, Diplomacy Scholar, #CyberSecurity and #FinancialSecurity expert.
