RAW runs for cover
Josy Joseph
DNA India - June 13, 2007
NEW DELHI: Had it not been his cantankerous wife, Dewanchand Malik, a spy, might still have been taking the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) for a ride.
Frustrated by a messy divorce and her husband's failure to turn up on a couple of dates at the court, Malik's wife shot off a letter to the agency's Aviation Research Centre agency in 2005 stating that Malik was a Bangladeshi national.
This not only exposed the case of a foreigner sneaking into a senior intelligence job, but also the threat he poses considering his knowledge of the country's vital scientific system.
Malik had managed to join the Aviation Research Centre of India's external intelligence by forging documents and claiming to be an Indian citizen.
According to Intelligence sources, they realised that Malik faked his citizenship only after his wife alerted them. "She wrote to us," confirmed an officer.
An intelligence official told DNA that Malik probably had an illicit affair that prompted his wife to move court.
According to sources, Malik had gone on leave immediately after his wife moved the courts for divorce in early 2005. But he disappeared as soon as his wife's letter forced RAW into launching a hunt for him sometime in April-May.
Over the past couple of years, the Intelligence Bureau and RAW have been hunting for Malik at all possible locations. "A few months back, we almost nabbed him at his 24-Parganas district residence, but he got wind of us in the last moment," IB sources said.
At every date of his divorce case, Raw officials land up at the court, waiting to nab him. "He hasn't turned up at the court ever since May 2005," sources said. However, Malik had once managed to get a stay from High Court on the divorce proceedings much after May 2005.
The RAW carried out extensive investigation on Malik in Bangladesh and collected conclusive evidence of his citizenship.
"His father is no more, but the rest of his kin are in Bangladesh," sources added. Malik, however, had spent several years in West Bengal and had studied mostly in Kolkata.
According to RAW sources, the government has never taken up Malik's case with the Bangladesh government officially.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1102916
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B'desh mole: RAW overhauls security
Josy Joseph
DNA India - June 13, 2007 10:44 IST
NEW DELHI: Shaken by the espionage row involving an assistant director of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), who doubled up as an undercover Bangladeshi spy, the Centre has overhauled the the system to vet employees being recruited to intelligence agency.
Sources told DNA that the new system was recommended by a high-level committee, led by national security advisor M K Narayanan, and set up following the disappearance of Dewanchand Malik, an assistant director in the Aviation Research Centre of the RAW, around May 2005. Malik, who has been declared an absconder, would have gone on to become the deputy director, said the sources.
A Bangladeshi Hindu, Malik had provided a fake Indian citizenship certificate before joining the ARC as a member of its Imagery Analysis Cadre and was working as assistant director. He was there between 1996 and 2005, when he disappeared after his wife alerted the intelligence agency about his Bangladeshi origin. Malik and his wife are fighting a divorce battle in a Delhi court, and he hasn't attended a single hearing for long.
The three-member committee, which included Dr R Chidambaram, principal scientific advisor to the Prime Minister, and the then RAW chief Hormis Tharakan, had recommended a complete revamp of the security clearance system "which is now being implemented" by the RAW.Since its inception, RAW had a two-layer security clearance system.
First, the selected candidate was required to provide a proof of citizenship and non-criminal background. The second stage involved a comprehensive security clearance from the district magistrate, and the Intelligence Bureau (IB). The IB primarily conducted an index check against its list of people under suspicion.
Following the panel's suggestion, a third layer has now been added. All Class I and Class II officers joining the RAW now need the agency's mandate too. Besides, RAW will also have to carry out security clearance for all appointments to sensitive posts, in
keeping with the committee's recommendation.
Malik has come on board with a certificate of Indian citizenship from a deputy director of the agricultural department in the West Bengal government. The sources said the official is now facing disciplinary action.
The Imagery Analysis Cadre analyses images and intercepts gathered by ARC's secret planes, helicopters and satellites. "It is an extremely sensitive job," said a senior intelligence officer.
ARC operates several secret planes and helicopters from at least five basesDelhi, Chakrata near Dehra Dun, Dum Duma near Tinsukia, Charbatia near Cuttack and possibly from Farkhor in Tajikistan. The sources insisted Malik had not stolen any document, but they admitted he had "extremely valuable" information.
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1102936&pageid=2
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"Our intelligence system is porous"
TIMESNOW.tv - June 13, 2007
Former senior RAW official B B Nandi alleges that intelligence agencies cannot look beyond foreign visits.
Hours after TIMES NOW broadcast an exclusive report on how a Bangladeshi spy had breached India's Cabinet Secretariat, now there are damning revelations against India's top intelligence agencies. A former senior Research and Analysis Wing or RAW official B B Nandi
says intelligence agencies cannot look beyond foreign visits.
"Free foreign trips are a lure"
"One reason is the craze for foreign visits," points out Nandi adding that this gives an opportunity for one and all to go to foreign countries, to spend some time. "This is one reason why we are so addict to the liaisons. I have also liaised, but I have found that really nothing is achieved expect by way of exposing our people to the overtures of other intelligence agencies."
"There's lack of political will"
In the past couple of years, some senior RAW officials have stabbed the intelligence agencies in the back. Nandi feels the main reason for this rot is the lack of political will.
"Unless at the political level there is a hard task master there is accountability and one thing I have been demanding is let the intelligence agencies security agencies report to the Parliament," says Nandi.
PMO security breached
Nandi was reacting to TIMES NOW report on how a Bangladeshi spy had targetted the Prime Minister's Office.
Dhimanchand Malik, alias DC, infiltrated into the PMO's Cabinet Secretariat as deputy director of RAW between 1999 and May 2005. FIR filed against Malik claimed he leaked confidential security information and stole some sensitive documents. Malik handled the Intelligence unit portfolio in the Cabinet Secretariat with over 200 field officers directly reporting to him Malik fled after the Counter Intelligence Unit of Cabinet Secretariat questioned his past in 2005. As soon as the breach was revealed, a team left for 24 Parganas in West Bengal to verify the residential address given by Malik. However, locals told the team that Malik was, in fact, a Bangladesh citizen. Later probes proved Malik had fled the country and it's believed he is currently in Bangladesh.
This is not the first time an espionage ring has been busted, but the fact that RAW took so long to detect a breach at a such high level has dented the credibility of India's top intelligence agency.
http://www.timesnow.tv/articleshow/2118659.cms