The United States has brought charges against Vikash Yadav, a former RAW official, for allegedly planning an abortive scheme to kill New York City-based Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
The former Indian intelligence officer is accused of money laundering and murder-for-hire by the US Justice Department.
“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,” said Merrick B. Garland, the US Attorney General.
According to reports, Yadav, who was working with the Indian government at the time, started the plot in May 2023. Yadav is accused of working with people both in India and overseas to plan the murder of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an Indian terrorist.
In the meantime, Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national who was detained in Prague in June of last year after arriving from India on suspicion of being recruited by Yadav. Since then, Gupta has been extradited to the US and has entered a not guilty plea to accusations of murder conspiracy. Yadav’s purported scheme is described in full in the indictment, which includes employing Gupta to “orchestrate the assassination of the victim in the United States.”
US officials claim that the scheme was urgent because another Khalistani terrorist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, was killed in Canada in 2023. With Nijjar’s passing, Gupta said there was “now no need to wait” for Pannun’s murder.
According to the indictment, Yadav and Gupta paid $100,000 to pay someone to kill someone, only to find out later that the hired killer was actually an FBI informant. The informant received a $15,000 advance for the automobile murder in New York just days before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US; the indictment contains photographic evidence of the crime.
It is said that Yadav gave Gupta and the informant the order to wait until after PM Modi’s arrival to carry out the killing in order to avoid any diplomatic repercussions during the high-profile occasion. Yadav sent Gupta a message indicating that confirmation was required before carrying out the murder.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs responded to the accusations by stating that the person mentioned in the indictment filed by the US Justice Department is no longer connected to the Indian government.
The person named in the Justice Department indictment is no longer employed by India, according to information provided to us by the US State Department. The Government of India no longer employs him, as I can confirm,” MEA spokesman Randhir Jaiswal said.
The Indian delegation met with an interagency team from the FBI, Department of Justice, and State Department, US State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller continued, underscoring the continued collaboration in the probe.
“They did let us know that the person mentioned in the indictment filed by the Justice Department is no longer employed by the Indian government. According to State Department spokesman Matthew Miller, “We are happy with the cooperation.”
A US court summoned the Indian government in September in relation to a legal suit that Pannun had filed, in which he claimed there was a plot to kill him. In response, the Indian government declared the summons to be “completely unwarranted.”
Ajit Doval, the national security advisor, and the Indian government were among the parties mentioned in the summons, which demanded a response within 21 days.