RAW: Official's secret acts

~ Colombo was just the latest of Ravi Nair's sex capers. His bosses knew of more

Those who knew of him believed Ravi Nair, senior intelligence man, lived a charmed life. An officer at the joint secretary level in the Research and Analysis Wing, Nair wangled plum postings, allegedly pocketed secret funds, was involved in several suspicious liaisons with women and, despite adverse notings from his seniors, managed to survive. However, Nair's luck finally ran out last week when embarrassed RAW officials were left with no other option but to recall him from Colombo. Feedback from the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka had it that the 1975 batch Research and Analysis Service (RAS) cadre officer was "involved" with a woman allegedly planted by the Chinese intelligence to entrap him. Tipped off, New Delhi wanted Nair out of Colombo in double quick time.

But how did Nair manage to hoodwink the system for so long? Insiders say it's courtesy a godfather he has in Shankaran Nair, the second RAW chief, and high connections in Delhi. Also the fact that RAW is slow and selective in conducting probes against erring officials.

Nair's activities had aroused suspicion prior to his posting in Colombo. He was at the agency's Chennai office when his relationship with a lady identified as "Ms Rao" from Mysore started attracting attention. She would visit Chennai on weekends and stay with Nair at his official bungalow in the city. Following reports from the Chennai office, then RAW chief P.K. Hormese Tharakan, as home ministry sources informed Outlook, immediately directed his then second-in-command and the current RAW chief Ashok Chaturvedi to conduct an inquiry and take suitable action.

It wasn't done. Which is why, when Nair's name was put forward for the Colombo posting, considered one of RAW's most sensitive stations, it went through without any second thoughts. Had Chaturvedi conducted an inquiry and taken action at Tharakan's behest, Nair wouldn't even have been considered for the crucial Sri Lanka posting and New Delhi could have saved itself the embarrassment Nair caused in Colombo.

Not that Colombo was Nair's first port of misdemeanour. At various other foreign postings, several allegations were filed against him. Among the key ones:

During A.K. Verma's tenure as RAW chief in the late '80s, Nair was hauled up for financial irregularities. He was suspected to have pocketed "secret" funds on a foreign posting. Verma even noted on his file that Nair be subjected to a lie detector test. That alone should have spelt an end to Nair's career in a sensitive organisation like RAW. It wasn't to be.

Years later, when posted in Bhutan, Nair was found to be "lacking in his work". In RAW, if an officer is found "lacking", it usually means an end to all foreign postings.But Nair was withdrawn prematurely from Bhutan only to be posted to Hong Kong, and continued to get plum, sensitive assignments, Sri Lanka being the latest one.

When posted in Hong Kong, RAW received a complaint from Nair's wife that he was "involved" with a Chinese woman, following which he was recalled before his tenure ended. Interestingly, it was the surfacing of the same Chinese woman in Colombo that has led to Nair's recall from there now. Nair, though, denies these allegations as "utter rubbish".

On an official trip to Japan, the country's secret service complained to Indian authorities about Nair's misdemeanours with a geisha. His senior on the trip, B. Raman, who later on retired as additional secretary, RAW, put on record strictures against him on his file.

With Nair's family life in trouble, RAW bosses had questioned the wisdom of posting him to sensitive stations abroad. Yet, Nair went from the United States to Bhutan, Pakistan, Hong Kong, and then Sri Lanka.Former RAW chief C.D. Sahay was worried that Nair could be easily compromised by foreign intelligence, and kept him away from all sensitive work during his tenure. When Sahay retired, Nair was back in circulation.

Ironically, the latest episode involving Nair has surfaced at a time when RAW chief Chaturvedi finds himself at the centre of yet another controversy. This relates to the case the cabinet secretariat recently launched under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) against retired RAW officer Major General V.K. Singh for authoring India's External Intelligence-The Secrets of RAW. While Chaturvedi pushed for Singh's prosecution, the Colombo capers of one of his colleagues has brought into sharp focus the RAW chief's failure to keep a tight administrative rein on his own cadre force. Now, say sources, even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has expressed his reservations about the case against Singh under the OSA.

The Nair case yet again underlines the ills that plague RAW-the absence of financial and professional accountability, rampant nepotism, the bias in favour of IPS officers and the lack of adequate checks and balances when recruiting officers directly into the RAS. In fact, so exasperated is National Security Advisor M.K. Narayanan that during an interaction at the recently concluded DG's conference (an annual police conference arranged by the Intelligence Bureau), he told Chaturvedi to cut down on the foreign junkets taken by senior RAW officers.

RAW's present troubles are far from over. With cases of nepotism and corruption becoming a norm, those within the agency wonder when the government will take corrective action. Preoccupied as it is with the Indo-US nuclear deal, RAW certainly doesn't seem top priority for the Manmohan Singh government. Chances are, the agency will be allowed to blunder along the same trajectory it has been following for years.