Why was Ashley Tellis, top US advisor on India, arrested after searches?

Ashley Tellis, a prominent US scholar on India, was arrested for retaining classified information and allegedly meeting Chinese officials.

Ashley Tellis, a well-known US scholar on India who advised the US government, was arrested and charged with retaining classified information and allegedly met Chinese officials, prosecutors said on Tuesday, HT reported earlier.

Ashley Tellis is a well-known US scholar on India who advised the US government. (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace)

Ashley Tellis, 64, was born in India and is now a naturalised US citizen, who has served as an adviser to the state department since 2001. He has served on the National Security Council of former Republican President George W Bush and is listed in an FBI court affidavit as an unpaid adviser to the state department and a Pentagon contractor.

Tellis is widely considered one of America’s most prominent experts on India and played a key role in the US-India civil nuclear deal talks in the mid-2000s.

He was arrested at the weekend and charged on Monday, the documents seen on Tuesday showed.

Why was Ashley Tellis arrested?

• Charged with violating federal law: Ashley Tellis was charged on October 13 in a Virginia district court with violating federal law governing the retention of national defence information, according to a criminal complaint and affidavit filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
• Over 1,000 classified pages found at home: US investigators found over 1,000 pages of documents marked top secret or secret at Tellis’s home in Vienna, Virginia, during a court-authorised search on October 11, according to the affidavit by an FBI special agent.
• Documents stored in basement: The classified materials were found in locked filing cabinets in a basement office, on a desk and in three large black rubbish bags in an unfinished storage room, the document states.
• Printing of classified documents: According to the affidavit, Tellis was observed on video surveillance on September 25 accessing classified computer systems at the state department’s Harry S Truman Building and printing hundreds of pages from classified documents, including a 1,288-page file concerning US Air Force tactics.
• File renamed and deleted after printing: The affidavit states Tellis renamed the file “Econ Reform” before printing selected pages, then deleted the file after printing.
• Surveillance footage shows concealment of documents: On October 10, surveillance footage from a secure compartmented information facility at the Mark Center in Alexandria, Virginia, allegedly shows Tellis concealing classified documents, including material marked top secret, inside notepads before placing them in his leather briefcase and leaving the facility, according to the court filing.
• Meetings with Chinese officials: The affidavit also details multiple meetings between Tellis and officials from the Chinese government at restaurants in Fairfax, Virginia, dating from September 2022 to September 2025. During a dinner on September 15, 2022, “Tellis entered the restaurant with a manila envelope” which “did not appear” to be in his possession when he departed, the document states.
• Planned overseas travel before arrest: Tellis was scheduled to travel to Rome with his family on the evening of October 11, the same day the search warrant was executed, for a work engagement, with a planned return via Milan on 27 October, according to the affidavit.

Ashley Tellis's India connection

• Ashley Tellis was born in Mumbai and earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from St Xavier’s College at the University of Bombay before obtaining a doctorate in political science from the University of Chicago.
• He previously served on the National Security Council staff as special assistant to president George W Bush and senior director for strategic planning and south-west Asia, and as senior adviser to the US ambassador in New Delhi.
• He helped negotiate the Bush administration's civil nuclear deal with India that was seen as a landmark in building ties between the world's two largest democracies.
• But in recent years, Tellis has become known as one of the most outspoken contrarians in Washington on the US courtship of India.
• In a recent essay in foreign affairs, Tellis said India was often pursuing policies at odds with the United States, pointing to its relations with Russia and Iran, and doubted that India would match China's strength anytime soon.

(With inputs from Shashank Mattoo in Washington)