Tamil Rahani is the leader of SPECTRE who appears in the James Bond novels Role of Honour and Nobody Lives For Ever.
Novel biography
Role of Honour
Rahani is the chairman and principle shareholder of Rahani Electronics. Secretly, he manages the Erewhon terrorist training camp alongside his right hand man, Simon. During the climax, James Bond aboards an airship being used to disarm the United States and Soviet nuclear weaponry by simulating satellite signals, Rahani reveals himself as the new head of SPECTRE, and escapes by parachuting out of an airship over Switzerland. Ultimately, Rahani lands badly, and injures his spine.
Nobody Lives For Ever
Bond learns from his colleague Steve Quinn that he is the target of a manhunt known as the Head Hunt, in which several criminal organizations such as SMERSH, the Unione Corse, the Red Brigade, and FALN are competing for a compensation of 10 million Swiss francs. In addition, he is informed that the competition is the brainchild of the current leader of SPECTRE, Tamil Rahani, who is also suffering from cancer in the spinal cord (caused by the events in Role of Honour) and expected to live for four months.
When Bond learns that the headquarters of SPECTRE are located in Key West, Florida, he arrives at the airport, and is taken captive by Quinn (who is a defector to the KGB) and Herr Doktor Kirchtum. Bond is taken aboard a ship where Quinn, Kirchtum, and the ship’s captain are killed by Sukie Tempesta and Nannie Norrich.
After buying a scuba diving suit, Bond abandons Tempesta and Norrich at the Pier House Hotel to pursue SPECTRE, and when he prepares himself to kill a sleeping Rahani, he is stopped by Norrich. When Rahani awakens from his sleep, Norrich reveals to Bond to be an operative of SPECTRE, and she informs the dying leader that he has delivered Bond onto him.
Bond is escorted to the dungeons where he is to executed via guillotine, and is stripped of Q'ute's toolkit and belt. However, Bond escapes thanks to unlocking the control lock through a pin. Then, Bond cuts a cord on Rahani's electric bed. When Bond is about to executed, Rahani requests his bed to be raised in order to witness it. When Norrich raises the bed, the bed explodes killing Rahani, Norrich, and two unnamed henchmen. The headquarters then erupts into an inferno where Bond, Moneypenny, and May are rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard.
