The United States Justice Department has charged a former official of the foreign intelligence agency of India - Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) - for his connection with a foiled plot to kill Sikh separatist leader and US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. The man, identified as Vikash Yadav, is reportedly at large but faces murder-for-hire charges in federal court.
The murder-for-hire plot was first disclosed by federal prosecutors last year when they announced charges against another Indian man, Nikhil Gupta, who was also then identified as Indian government employee recruited to orchestrate the assassination of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist leader in New York.
Who Is Indian RAW Official Vikash Yadav
The federal prosecutors revealed that Vikas also known as Vikash Yadav, 39, was employed by the Cabinet Secretariat, which houses India's foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW).
Yadav, who is believed to be no longer a government employee, has been charged with three counts including murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
US Attorney General Merrick B. Garland reportedly said, “Today’s charges demonstrate that the Justice Department will not tolerate attempts to target and endanger Americans and to undermine the rights to which every US citizen is entitled."
Meanwhile FBI Director Christopher Wray stated, “The defendant, an Indian government employee, allegedly conspired with a criminal associate and attempted to assassinate a US citizen on American soil for exercising their First Amendment rights."
What Does The Indictment Say?
Unsealing of the second indictment comes within 48 hours of an Indian Enquiry Committee visiting here to have a meeting with an inter-agency team of officials from the FBI, Department of Justice and the State Department on these issues.
“We are satisfied with the cooperation. It continues to be an ongoing process. We continue to work with them on that, but we do appreciate the cooperation, and we appreciate them updating us on their investigation as we update them on ours,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.
“The meeting that occurred yesterday – we updated – we being the US government broadly – updated members of the Committee of Inquiry about the investigation that the United States has been conducting. We’ve received an update from them on the investigation that they have been conducting. It was a productive meeting, and I will leave it at that,” Miller said.
Running into 18 pages, the indictment that was unsealed Thursday posts a pictures of Yadav in a military dress and also gives a picture of two persons exchanging dollars in a car in New York, which federal prosecutors said were the money being paid to the alleged killer by a person on behalf of Gupta and Yadav to assassinate the Sikh Separatist leader in New York. The picture is dated June 9, 20203 The name of the Sikh separatist, a US citizen, is not mentioned in the indictment.
“By indicting RAW Official Vikash Yadav in “Murder For Hire” Plot, US Government has reassured its commitment to fundamental constitutional duty to protect the life, liberty and freedom of expression of the US Citizen at home and abroad,” Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel to separatist Sikh for Justice, said in a statement after the indictment was released by the Department of Justice.
The damaging indictment alleges that Yadav along with his co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta plotted to kill the Sikh separatist leader in the summer of 2023. For this Gupta hired an individual to do the kill job. The unidentified individual, who was an informant to the FBI asked for USD100,000 for the job and received USD15,000 as an advance payment on June 9, 2023.
Following the allegations by the US, India appointed a high-level inquiry committee to look into the inputs provided by the US on the plot.
Two members of the committee travelled to the US and had a meeting with the US officials, Jaiswal said.
"These are members of high-level inquiry committee that had been set up in November 2023 to look into the inputs that had been shared with us by the US, and we have taken these inputs very seriously...we remain engaged with the US side on this particular matter," he told reporters.
According to the indictment, Yadav told Gupta and the hired killer not to do the job immediately before or during the State visit.
The indictment reveals that there was a link between the murder of another Sikh separatist Nijjar in Canada during the same period. Federal prosecutors have shared communications between Yadav, Gupta and the alleged killer on the two incidents.
MEA Formed Inquiry Committee A Day Before
Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Thursday said that an Indian inquiry committee was set up in connection with alleged foiled plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and a meeting was held with the officials in the US, India on Thursday which said it has taken inputs provided by the US "very seriously".
In response to another query on the person identified in an indictment of the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in connection with the case, Jaiswal confirmed that the person is "no longer an employee of the government of India".
The US earlier said the Indian government has expressed seriousness in dealing with the allegations of the plot to kill Pannun.
A team of Indian officials had a meeting recently with the officials of the State Department and Department of Justice in Washington.
Another Indian National Charged In The Case
In November last year, US federal prosecutors charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta of working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Pannun in New York.
Pannun, wanted in India on terror charges, holds dual citizenship of the US and Canada.
Gupta, who was arrested in the Czech Republic in June last year, was extradited to the US on June 14.
The US has consistently pressed India for updates on the Indian investigation into the alleged foiled plot to kill Pannun and made it clear that it seeks accountability in the case, a senior Biden administration official had said in June.
US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell had said the US raised the issue directly at the most senior levels of the Indian government.
On Tuesday, the US had alleged that India was not cooperating with Canada on the latter's investigation into the killing of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year.
