Rabinder Singh was a career civil servant who was serving as Joint Secretary to the Government of India in the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India's external intelligence agency, who defected to the United States in 2004.[1][2] He died in a road accident in the United States in late 2016.[3] Singh initially served in the Indian Army, reaching the rank of Major.[4] He later volunteered to join R&AW. It has been alleged that he fell for a CIA honey-trap, likely either at the R&AW station in Damascus or Hague during the early 1990s by a lady case officer of the CIA.[3] According to reports, he attracted attention from counter-intelligence officials when he was found photocopying documents not related to his work. After coming under suspicion, he was placed under surveillance and his phone conversations were tapped, but in May 2004, he disappeared. A former senior RAW official in 2018 commented that RAW's own intransigence at not handing over the investigation to the Intelligence Bureau was to blame for his defection.[5] He is suspected of having escaped to the U.S. via Nepal.[6] In Mission R&AW, a book written by a former R&AW officer, it is claimed that Singh flew to America from Kathmandu along with his wife on 7 May 2004 using a fake identity in the name of Mr and Mrs Rajpal Prasad Sharma. The R&AW unit at Kathmandu did nothing despite clear intelligence on Singh's escape plans. It is also claimed[by whom?] that R&AW managed to get copies of their visas and embarkation cards. These documents reveal that the CIA, on 7 April 2004, issued US passport number 017384251 to Singh. His wife Parminder Kaur was also given a US passport on the same day in the name of Deepa Kumar Sharma. Both boarded Austrian Air flight number 5032 on 7 May 2004, from Kathmandu. He was assisted by CIA operative David M Vacala.[7]