Indian spies booted out of Australia for trying to steal sensitive information

Australian authorities expelled two Indian intelligence operatives in 2020 for being members of an elaborate “nest of spies” that attempted to steal sensitive information about defence technology, airport security and trade relationships.

The revelation about the previously secret operations of India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), raises uncomfortable questions about Australia’s deepening ties with India, including through the high-profile Quad security grouping.

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess referred to the “nest of spies” in a 2021 speech but did not identify it as an Indian foreign intelligence operation. Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

As part of a detailed investigation into Indian foreign interference efforts around the globe, The Washington Post reported on the expulsion of the two RAW officers on Monday.

ASIO Director-General Mike Burgess revealed in 2021 that ASIO had uncovered a “nest of spies” from a foreign intelligence service, whose operations included grooming politicians and a foreign embassy as informants, but did not identify the country behind it.

Two Australian sources with access to classified briefings and close connections to the intelligence community, but not authorised to speak publicly, confirmed the accuracy of The Washington Post report to this masthead.

In his 2021 annual threat assessment, 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.

“They successfully cultivated and recruited an Australian government security clearance holder who had access to sensitive details of defence technology.”

Burgess said ASIO confronted the spies, quietly removed them from the country and cancelled the security clearance of the government employee who had access to defence technology details.

The nation behind the spy operation was “not from a country in our region”, he said at the time, and naming it “would be an unnecessary distraction”.

Some media reports on the 2021 speech speculated that Burgess was probably referring to Russia.

In his 2023 threat assessment, Burgess described the operations of a separate foreign “hive of spies”, later identified as Russian operatives by this masthead.

Greens home affairs spokesman David Shoebridge said Australia needed to make plain to India that “these are clearly not the actions of a supposed ally”.

“It speaks loudly to the degree of subservience and self-censorship from successive Australian governments that we only hear about this four years after the event through disclosures in the US,” he said.

“Australia must have a robust, mature and honest relationship with India that includes being frank about the human rights and political challenges the [Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party] BJP administration is creating both at home and abroad.”

An ASIO spokesperson said: “As is long-standing practice, ASIO does not comment on intelligence matters.”

The Indian high commission in Canberra has not responded to a request for comment.

The Post report also accused an Indian RAW official, Vikram Yadav, of allegedly ordering a hired hit team to assassinate prominent Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US.

One of the key figures in the global Khalistan movement, Pannun serves as the spokesman and legal counsel for the Sikhs for Justice organisation, which advocates for the creation of a separate Sikh state.

Pannun has been designated as a terrorist by the Indian government.

Ian Hall, an expert on Indian politics at Griffith University, said he was surprised to learn that the “nest of spies” Burgess referred to in his 2021 speech was an Indian operation.

He said it was revealing that the spies had been quietly removed from the country with no prosecutions or public rebuke from the Australian government.

“That tells you how incredibly significant India is, and how determined Australia is not to derail the relationship.”

While Australia and the US were determined to stay close to India for economic and strategic reasons, he added: “This kind of thing can fester away and generate mistrust.”

Hall said American anger at India’s attempt to assassinate Pannun on US soil helped explain why plans to hold a leaders’ meeting of the Quad – comprising India, Australia, the US and Japan – in India this year were looking shaky.

“Some of the Quad initiatives, like quantum computing, require a lot of trust between the member nations, and this kind of thing does not help develop that,” he said.

Hall said India’s RAW was old-fashioned, underfunded and not as skilful as some other foreign spy agencies, such as Israel’s Mossad.

Ministry of External Affairs of India spokesman Randhir Jaiswal responded to the Post’s report on Twitter by saying: “The report in question makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter.

“There is an ongoing investigation of the high-level committee set up by the government of India to look into the security concerns shared by the US government on networks of organised criminals, terrorists and others.

“Speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is widely expected to be easily returned to power for a third parliamentary term in elections under way in India.

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