India, regarded as a friendly nation by Australia, operated what is being called a “nest of spies” in this country, the ABC reports, adding that the group was kicked out in 2020 after the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation discovered what they were up to.
The ABC report came on the same day that the Washington Post reported that an officer in India’s Research and Analysis Wing, the country’s premier intelligence service, had been hatching a plot to assassinate a top critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US in June last year.
The plot was being organised while Modi was on a state visit to the US, the Post said, adding that the officer in question, one Vikram Yadav, had termed the planned killing of Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun as a “priority now”. The newspaper cited current and former Indian and US security officials as its sources.
Yadav had sent the would-be assassins Pannun’s New York residential address, the report said, adding that they had been told the killing could be carried out as soon as they confirmed that Pannun was at home.
The ABC report, written by defence correspondent Andrew Greene, said ASIO director-general Mike Burgess had referred to the spy ring during his annual threat assessment in 2021, without naming India as the country involved.
In his speech, Burgess said: “The spies developed targeted relationships with current and former politicians, a foreign embassy and a state police service.
“They monitored their country’s diaspora community. They tried to obtain classified information about Australia’s trade relationships.
“They asked a public servant to provide information on security protocols at a major airport.”
Yadav’s plan was thwarted by American authorities, the Post said, adding that higher-ranking RAW officials had also been implicated in the plot which had been investigated by the CIA, FBI and other agencies that had traced links to Modi’s inner circle.
Modi is now bidding to be re-elected for a third term as prime minister, with elections underway and two of seven days of voting completed. The sensitivity about Sikh activism is the reason why India expelled Avani Dias, an ABC reporter, from the country after she filed a detailed examination of the activists who are agitating for a separate state for Sikhs within India.
The ABC said national security and government sources had now confirmed that RAW was responsible for the so-called “nest of spies” and a number of Indian officials had been sent packing by the Morrison Government when this came to light.
The ABC said Burgess, in his 2022 threat assessment had again referred to friendly nations who were conducting espionage against Australia.
He was quoted as saying, “Multiple countries are seeking to conduct espionage against us — and not just those countries that might be considered our traditional adversaries.
“In some instances, espionage is conducted by countries we consider friends — friends with sharp elbows and voracious intelligence requirements.”
The ABC cited government sources as saying that the countries referred to included Singapore, South Korea, Israel and India.
The Post report said that the operation against Pannun had been assessed as having been given the go-ahead by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel.
Former Indian security officials were cited as having confirmed to the newspaper that Goel was under pressure to eliminate the threats from Sikhs overseas.
The plot against Pannun came around the same time Canadian Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in Surrey near Vancouver. This incident was also linked to Yadav, the Post said citing Western officials.
It said both plots came against a background of violence in Pakistan, where at least 11 Sikh or Kashmiri separatists, labelled terrorists by Modi’s government, had been over the past two years.
Sam Varghese is an Australian of Indian origin who has lived in the country for nearly 26 years. He has worked as a journalist for more than 40 years and currently writes for the tech website iTWire. He has worked for the Deccan Herald and Indian Express in India, Khaleej Times in the UAE and Daily Commercial News (now defunct) and The Age in Australia.