WASHINGTON: A well-known US scholar on India who advised the US government was charged with retaining classified information and allegedly met Chinese officials, prosecutors have said.

Ashley Tellis, 64, who has worked in or advised the US government for more than two decades, was found to have kept more than 1,000 pages of top-secret or secret documents in his home, a criminal affidavit said on Tuesday.

Late in the evening of Sept 25, Tellis entered the State Dept, where he served as an unpaid adviser, and appeared to print from a secret document on US Air Force techniques, the affidavit added.

It said Tellis met multiple times with Chinese officials at a restaurant in Fairfax, Virginia.

At one dinner, Tellis entered with a manila envelope but did not appear to leave with it, and on two occasions the Chinese officials presented him a gift bag, the affidavit said.

Tellis faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted on the charges of unlawfully holding documents, the Justice Department said.

Lawyers for Tellis did not immediately respond to a request for comment “The charges as alleged in this case represent a grave risk to the safety and security of our citizens,” said Lindsey Halligan, the US attorney for Virginia’s eastern district who has become known for pursuing charges against critics of President Donald Trump.

The State Department confirmed that Tellis was arrested Saturday but declined further comment due to the ongoing investigation.

Tellis, a naturalised US citizen originally from India, is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served in senior positions under former president George W. Bush.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2025