New Delhi: The US Justice Department said it has arrested Ashley Tellis, a former US diplomat and a policy analyst of Indian origin widely regarded as an India hand, on criminal charges related to the unlawful retention of national defence information.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the department said Tellis, 64, of Vienna, Virginia, “unlawfully retained numerous documents containing national defence information, including documents marked as Top Secret and Secret, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 793(e).”

He was taken into custody following a search of his home on October 11.

According to an affidavit filed in the Eastern District of Virginia by FBI special agent Jeffrey Scott, Tellis, a naturalised US citizen, held Top Secret security clearance with access to ‘sensitive compartmented information’ through his work as an unpaid senior adviser at the State Department and as a contractor with the Department of Defence's Office of Net Assessment.

Federal prosecutors alleged that during the search of his Vienna residence, investigators “located over a thousand pages of paper documents with classification markings at the Top Secret and/or Secret levels”.

The affidavit said the materials were found in filing cabinets, on a desk and inside trash bags in the basement of the house, which agents described as Tellis's home office.

Investigators alleged that Tellis repeatedly removed or printed classified material from secure government systems.

On September 12, he was observed “via video surveillance entering a secured compartmented information facility utilised by the Office of Net Assessment” in Alexandria, Virginia and having “a co-worker print multiple classified documents for him”.

Two weeks later, on September 25, Tellis allegedly accessed the State Department's “Classnet” network, which handles Secret-level information.

According to the affidavit, he opened a PDF file “that referred to US Air Force tactics, techniques and procedures”, originally titled with a reference to adversary fighter aircraft and marked ‘Secret’. He then “re-saved the document, changing the file name to ‘Econ Reform’”, before printing sections of it in batches. He then opened and printed two additional US Air Force Weapons School documents “concerning military aircraft capabilities”, both marked Secret.

On October 10, Tellis was again allegedly recorded on video inside a secure Pentagon facility “placing documents believed to be classified at the Top Secret level” inside a notepad and then into his leather briefcase. He was seen leaving the building and driving directly home.

The affidavit further claimed that Tellis “met with government officials of the People's Republic of China on multiple occasions over the past several years”.

It listed four dinners between 2022 and 2025, including one in September 2022 in Fairfax, Virginia, where Tellis arrived “with a manila envelope” and Chinese officials “entered the restaurant with a gift bag”.

Another dinner in April 2023 was allegedly recorded, during which Tellis and the officials “were overheard talking about Iranian-Chinese relations and emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence”.

Tellis, who joined the State Department in 2001, is known for his role in negotiating the 2005 India-US civil nuclear agreement.

He previously served as senior adviser at the US embassy in New Delhi and as special assistant to President George W. Bush as well as senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia at the National Security Council. He is currently the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

This article was updated at 12:51 am on October 15.

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