Govt waited till the very last, so R&AW man acted: he fled

On May 14, when a change of guard appeared imminent, the action proposed by the RAW chief against its Joint Secretary was finally approved. But the same day, Singh fled the country. The defection was first reported in The Indian Express.

Written orders for disciplinary (and probably, criminal) action against Singh was one of the last, perhaps most sensitive decisions taken by the NDA government. But with one significant rider—that the proposed action against the officer should ‘‘have the concurrence of the new government’’.

Senior officials of the Atal Behari Vajpayee government as well as members of the present PMO confirm that Singh managed to escape despite the top brass knowing about his activities since at least April. RAW Secretary C D Sahay had handed over more than one secret report on Singh’s espionage activities to the PMO. The first report reached the PMO in the month of April, while the final report from RAW headquarters—along with the evidence marshalled against the officer—reached a few days before the announcement of election results.

What is not clear is whether the government order endorsing the action proposed by the RAW chief was signed by Brajesh Mishra or Cabinet Secretary Kamal Pande.

Breaking his silence on the issue for the first time, former Intelligence Bureau chief M K Narayanan, now the Prime Minister’s Special Advisor on Security, called it ‘‘unfortunate’’ that a senior intelligence operative trading country’s secrets had made good his escape. ‘‘Passing judgement on how it happened is not important. What is important is that he managed to escape and there is as yet no confirmation about his whereabouts,’’ he said.

Significantly, Narayanan, who is expected to handle the proposed revamp of intelligence agencies along with current National Security Advisor J N Dixit, said emerging facts showed that US agencies helped Singh get away.

‘‘I have been in the business of intelligence gathering for long. What is uppermost in our minds is trying to find out why he was so important for them (the Americans).’’