Former chief of the country’s external intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), K. Shankaran Nair, passed away in his sleep at Mallige Hospital in Bengaluru in the wee hours of Tuesday.
He was 94 years old and survived by a daughter, with whom he was staying in the city for the past eight years. His wife passed away three years ago.
“He was not keeping well for sometime now due to age related issues. He was hospitalised at Mallige Hospital, for the past couple of days. When a duty nurse checked on him at around 5:00 a.m, on Tuesday he did not respond and was immediately rushed to the emergency. But he was dead by then. He passed away in his sleep,” said Aruna Prasad, his niece.
K. Shankaran Nair, from Ottapalam village in Kerala, was part of the Intelligence Bureau and was later inducted into Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in 1968, as the deputy to Rameshwarnath Kao, its founder.
As Mr. Kao’s deputy, Shankaran Nair is credited with the success of the 1971 Bangladesh war. Under his leadership, RAW helped find the guerrilla fighters troupe Mukti Bahini and train them.
Mr. Nair succeeded R N Kao, as the chief of RAW in 1977. He resigned just three months after taking over, protesting against the then Prime Minister Morarji Desai downgrading the post of chief of RAW, to director from Secretary (R), earlier.
Mr. Nair played a crucial role restructuring RAW in 1980 after Indira Gandhi returned to power. He was later appointed as India’s High Commissioner to Singapore in 1986 and served till 1988.
Mr. Nair wrote his memoir Inside IB and RAW: The rolling stone that gathered moss in 2008, considered to be one of the definitive insider accounts of the initial days of post-independent Indian intelligence and RAW.
