NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 6: Three years after it watched Joint Secretary Rabinder Singh flee the country, allegedly to the US, the country’s premier external intelligence agency, the Research & Analysis Wing, has been forced to bring another of its officers under the scanner. It has issued orders to recall its representative in Sri Lanka for alleged links with a woman foreign national suspected to have a “Chinese connection.”

Confirming this to The Sunday Express, Government sources said that RAW’s decision comes after it received several reports from different agencies, including the Indian High Commission in Colombo, on the “questionable movements” of Ravi Nair, a 1975 batch Research and Analysis Service (RAS) officer. And that inquiries were carried out by different quarters before instructions for Nair’s recall were passed.

After a stint in Hong Kong, Nair has been in Colombo for little over a year. It’s learnt that his alleged links with the woman date back to his previous tenure and authorities here became cautious when Nair “revived” these links in Colombo.

While RAW is silent on the nature of these links, sources said, there was reasonable doubt of a Chinese connection which accentuated concerns here leading to a further probe.

This is not the first time that Nair’s on the radar. Sources said he came under a cloud during his earlier postings in US, Pakistan and Bhutan.

Despite these red flags along the way, Nair was moved from one sensitive assignment to the other.

This time, though, another officer has been identified to replace Nair who is likely to move out within a month from now.

Already facing the heat for the high-handed manner in which it moved against former RAW official Maj Gen (retd) V K Singh over his book, the agency is treading cautiously.

And action against Nair has strengthened demands that similar alacrity be shown against those named in the Rabinder Singh inquiry.