FBI busts Ashley Tellis, top US-India policy advisor

The FBI has arrested Ashley Tellis, a prominent Indian-origin US government advisor after being charged with holding on to TOP SECRET documents and allegedly collaborating with Chinese government officials.

The 64-year old naturalised US citizen was found to have kept over 1,000 pages of secret documents in his home, according to the FBI’s criminal affidavit.

If the charges are proven it would mean a spectacular fall from grace for the well-known US advisor.

Remember, Tellis is the guy who served on the National Security Council of former Republican President George W. Bush. He helped negotiate the Bush administration’s civil nuclear deal with India. That deal was seen as a landmark moment in strengthening Indo-US relations. The guy literally wrote books on Indo-US foreign policy that Indian students studied in universities.

But now, the senior fellow at a Carnegie think tank is being made to look like one of those characters in spy movies that gets caught for shady deals with nefarious foreign officials.

Tellis has been accused of printing, storing and then handing over sensitive information to Chinese government officials at a restaurant in the Washington suburb of Fairfax, Virginia.

Lindsey Halligan, the US attorney for Virginia's eastern district declared that the charges represent “a grave risk to the safety and security” of US citizens.

Fun fact - Halligan has become known for pursuing charges against critics of President Donald Trump.

The State Department confirmed that Tellis was arrested on Saturday and faces up to 10 years in prison and a hefty $250,000 fine, if convicted of the charges.