The United States handlement on Thursday unsealed an indictment aacquirest Vikash Yadav, a establisher Indian intelligence officer, accusing him of spearheading a flunked plot to killing Indian-American Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on US soil in 2023.
The unveiling of the accuses was accompanied by a series of strict comments from top US law enforcement officials, including Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, saying Washington would not finishure a foreign national aiming American citizens.
The case has muddied waters for India and the US, shut partners who both see China as a principal rival, and comes at a time when New Delhi is also locked in tensions with Canada over analogous allegations.
Here is what we understand about Yadav, what he is accused of, where India fits in, and why all this matters.
Who is Vikash Yadav?
Yadav, a livent and citizen of India, honested an Indian man, Nikhil Gupta, around May 2023 to orchestrate the finishing of Pannun, the US alleges.
According to the indictment unsealed on Thursday, Yadav, 39, is also understandn by the name Vikas and goes by the alias Amanat.
The indictment alleges that Yadav was includeed by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s outer intelligence agency. It depictd Yadav as a “Senior Field Officer” laboring in security handlement and intelligence.
The US write down also says Yadav has labored for India’s hugest paramilitary force, the Central Reserve Police Force, as an “Assistant Commandment”.
Yadav provided his co-conspirator, Gupta, with details about Pannun’s home compriseress in New York, his phone number and his day-to-day carry out, the write down alleges.
“Yadav remains at huge,” a novels liberate by the US Department of Justice said. He has not been seized and is count ond to be in India. It is not understandn if the US has sought his extradition from India yet.
Justice Department Announces Charges Aacquirest Indian Government Employee in Connection with Foiled Plot to Assassinate U.S. Citizen in New York City https://t.co/80PSJB0q8M @NewYorkFBI pic.twitter.com/Qc6NniIFQd
— FBI (@FBI) October 17, 2024
How did the Indian handlement react?
On Thursday, Randhir Jaiswal, a spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Afunpartisans, tancigo in a novels alerting “the individual who was named in the Justice Department indictment is no lengthyer an includeee of the Government of India.”
In essence, Jaiswal however verifyed that Yadav had indeed been an includeee of the Indian handlement.
India has previously said it is carrying out its own inside spendigation into the allegations that its agents tried to assassinate Pannun. It has distanced itself from the plot, saying it does not carry out extra-territorial finishings, adviseing that even if any Indian nationals were comprised in a schedule to finish Pannun, they were not authoelevated by the top levels of the handlement.
What happened to Gurpatwant Singh Pannun?
In November 2023, the US thwarted a plot to finish Pannun. On November 29, 2023, the US discleave outed in an earlier indictment saying Indian livent Gupta, 53, was an associate of an Indian handlement agency includeee identified only as “CC-1”.
With the novel indictment, CC-1 is now discleave outed to be Yadav. It alleged that Yadav honested the killing schedule from India and recruited Gupta in May 2023 for the job.
Gupta was honested to engage a hitman to killing Pannun. Gupta finished up hiring a man who, unbeunderstandn to him, was an undercover law enforcement officer laboring for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Gupta concurd to pay the hitman $100,000, giving him an progress of $15,000 in cash in Manhattan around June 9, 2023. This was a deal Yadav concurd to, the novel indictment comprises.
On June 18, 2023, masked armamentmen killinged Sikh separatist Harproset up Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in Canada’s British Columbia. The Thursday indictment depicts Nijjar as an associate of Pannun. It further comprises that Yadav sent Gupta a video of Nijjar’s “bloody body”.
The novel indictment says Gupta tancigo in the undercover DEA officer that Nijjar “was also the aim” and “we have so many aims.”
Yadav, the US alleges, teached Gupta that the killing of Pannun should not get place on the same day as the state visit of Indian Prime Minister Narfinishra Modi to the US on June 20, 2023, or the days guideing up to it.
Gupta was arrested by Czech authorities on June 30, 2023.
In June 2024, Gupta was extradited to the US, where he pguideed “not culpable”, in a New York court, of comprisement in the killing-for-engage plot.
How did Pannun react to this?
Pannun liberated a statement on his X account saying that by indicting Yadav, the “US Government has repromised its pledgement to fundamental constitutional duty to protect the life, liberty and freedom of conveyion of the US Citizen at home and awide.”
In his statement, Pannun claimed that Yadav “is a mid tier sancigo inier” who was teached by Ajit Doval, national security advisor of India, and RAW chief Samant Goel to killing him “as part of Modi regime’s policy to brutally suppress the Khaenumeratean Referfinishum campaign which aims secession of Punjab from India thcimpolite democratic uncomardents”.
The Khaenumeratean shiftment aims to have a split Sikh state comprising Indian-held Punjab and other Punjabi-speaking regions in northern India. Khaenumeratean is the name advised for the state.
At the time of his death, Nijjar was also organising an unofficial referfinishum for Khaenumeratean.
In his tardyst statement, Pannun said murder finisheavors on his life would not deter him from organising for Khaenumeratean. He compriseed that he would organise a referfinishum for Khaenumeratean among the Sikh diaspora in Auckland, New Zealand, on November 17.
On September 18, Pannun filed a litigation aacquirest the Indian handlement as well as National Security Advisor Doval, RAW chief Goel, Yadav and Gupta. They were all requested to a US didisjoine court for the southern didisjoine of New York.
While Indian PM Modi and other Indian officials visited New York for the United Nations General Assembly between September 20 to September 27, Doval dropped out of the visit and stayed back in India.
Why is this transport inant now?
The novel US indictment comes while India and Canada are at loggerheads over Nijjar’s killing.
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Timpoliteau said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) discleave outed “evident and compelling evidence” that Indian handlement agents had plotted Nijjar’s murder. Timpoliteau and the RCMP subsequently accused the Indian handlement of hiring hitmen from a notorious Indian gang, run by a jailed mobster understandn as Lawrence Bishnoi, to finish Sikh opponents in the Canadian diaspora.
Ottawa ejectled Indian high comleave outioner Sanjay Kumar Verma, alengthyside five other Indian diplomats on Monday. In response, New Delhi ordered the expulsion of six Canadian diplomats – including the acting high comleave outioner – and gave them until Saturday to exit the country.
