Subhechcha Ganguly 
Ashley Tellis, a prominent US scholar and advisor on India, has been arrested and charged with unlawfully retaining classified information and allegedly meeting Chinese officials, according to prosecutors.
Tellis, 64, born in India and now a naturalised US citizen, has advised the US State Department since 2001 and previously served on the National Security Council under former President George W. Bush. He is widely regarded as one of America’s foremost experts on India and played a key role in negotiating the US-India civil nuclear deal in the mid-2000s.
According to an FBI affidavit, over 1,000 classified pages marked “Top Secret” or “Secret” were recovered from Tellis’s home in Vienna, Virginia, during an October 11 search. The materials were found in locked cabinets, on a desk, and inside garbage bags in a basement storage area.
Surveillance footage reportedly showed Tellis printing hundreds of pages from classified computer systems at the State Department, renaming files, and later concealing documents in notepads before leaving a secure facility.
Investigators also cited multiple meetings with Chinese officials at restaurants in Virginia between 2022 and 2025, including one instance where Tellis entered with a manila envelope that he did not have upon leaving.
Tellis was charged on October 13 in a Virginia district court with violating federal laws related to the retention of national defense information. His arrest came just before he was scheduled to travel to Rome for official work.
