NEW DELHI, May 29: A senior sleuth of India's external intelligence agency RAW has turned out to be a double agent and has defected to the United States, news reports said on Saturday.

They said Ravinder Singh, a joint secretary in the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) who had been missing since May 14, is believed to have been spying for the United States and he may have defected there.

Mr Singh was being watched by RAW's counter-intelligence wing for the past one month when he came under suspicion after a 'slip' by a US diplomat working under cover at the American embassy in Delhi, The Hindustan Times said.

The unidentified US official, on a routine liaison session with RAW officers, happened to mention Mr Singh's name. It led RAW to mount a counter-surveillance operation.

Mr Singh's phones were tapped and a spy camera was fitted in his office at RAW headquarters. The spy camera showed Mr Singh photocopying top-secret documents and other operational details of the country's external intelligence agency, which he is believed to have later passed on to his American handlers, the newspaper said.

The agency is trying to figure out the secrets Mr Singh might have passed on. But it is clear that the spy fled while RAW dithered, the newspaper said.

A brazenly pro-American government has been recently replaced in India by a Congress Party led coalition, which seeks strategic ties with Washington, but reserves the right to speak its mind.

The newspaper said when RAW's bosses discussed the issue with a former top security official, they were asked not to proceed against the alleged defector.

That split the RAW hierarchy. While one group wanted immediate action against Mr Singh, another refused to allow his arrest. The time lost gave Singh the opportunity to make a quiet getaway.-J.N.