Rabinder Singh, spy who defected to US, is no more: Double agent lived his last years as a remorseful recluse.

Rabinder Singh, an army Major who joined R&AW on deputation, rose through the ranks of India’s external spy agency before he was recruited by the CIA.

Rabinder Singh, a R&AW spy who fell for a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) trap and defected to Washington in 2004, is dead. The double agent passed away sometime in late 2016 in a road accident in Maryland, informed government sources said. Singh was living as a refugee in the US after CIA dumped him months after a dramatic extraction to the US through Kathmandu in May 2004. He was faced with financial problems since the CIA had stopped sending him pay cheques. Singh’s attempts to get a job at a US think tank run by a former CIA deputy director were stonewalled, pushing him into deep depression, claimed an officer requesting not to be identified. 

A remorseful Singh, burdened with the sin of betraying his country, spent almost 12 years as a recluse in New York, Maryland and neighboring Virginia, where his extended family lives.