RAW official arrested by CBI on bribery charges

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) Research and Analysis Wing (RAW)
-- India's external intelligence gathering agency -- came
under spotlight again for the wrong reason when one of its
senior officials was arrested by the CBI for allegedly taking
bribe of Rs one lakh from a Chennai-based manufacturer.

Dr A S Narayan Rao, an officer of Director rank working
as scientist in the technical division of RAW, was arrested by
the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from a hotel in
Karol Bagh of Central Delhi Monday night while he was
allegedly accepting the cash from the manufacturer, official
sources said here Tuesday.

The court remanded Rao to CBI custody till February
five. Rao denied any wrong doing and claimed he has been
falsely implicated by the agency as he had raised several
questions in granting license to the company, which deals in
export of sophisticated telecom equipments.

Rao had allegedly demanded Rs eight lakh as bribe for
clearing the export licence of the Chennai-based firm and Rs
one lakh was the first installment, the sources said, adding
searches were conducted and documents pertaining to the
Chennai-based company seized.

His arrest has again put the RAW's counter-surveillance
mechanism in bad light.

RAW has been dogged by controversies since 2004 after
one of its joint secretaries, Rabinder Singh was allegedly
found leaking sensitive documents to a western spy agency. He
managed to flee the country leaving the agency red faced.

The agency reportedly came to know about Rao's arrest
this morning when a CBI team reached RAW offices to search his
room. PTI