Indian agent charged over plot to kill American Sikh
Vikash Yadav, 39, who remains at large, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and money laundering.
An Indian intelligence official has been indicted for his role in a foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader in the US.
Vikash Yadav, 39, who remains at large, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and money laundering, the US Justice Department said overnight on Thursday.
Mr Yadav is the second Indian national to be charged in the US in the alleged plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US and Canadian citizen who lives in New York. Mr Pannun is affiliated with a New York-based group called Sikhs for Justice that advocates for the secession of Punjab, a northern Indian state with a large Sikh population.
Nikhil Gupta, 53, pleaded not guilty in June to involvement in the assassination plot after being extradited to the US from the Czech Republic.
In a statement on X, Mr Pannun denounced the alleged assassination plot as a “blatant case of India’s transnational terrorism” and a “threat to freedom of speech and democracy”.
The Justice Department accused Mr Yadav of directing the plot and said he recruited Mr Gupta in May 2023 to hire a hitman to carry out the murder.
Mr Gupta allegedly contacted an individual he believed to be a criminal associate to hire a hitman. The individual was in fact a confidential source working with the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
“Yadav, an employee of the Indian government, used his position of authority and access to confidential information to direct the attempted assassination of an outspoken critic of the Indian government here on US soil,” said DEA chief Anne Milgram.
Attorney-General Merrick Garland said the Justice Department “will be relentless in holding accountable any person – regardless of their position or proximity to power – who seeks to harm and silence American citizens”.
According to the Justice Department, Mr Yadav was employed by the Indian government’s Cabinet Secretariat, which houses its foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing.
The US said on Wednesday it had been informed by India that an intelligence operative accused of directing an assassination plot on US soil was no longer in government service.
The action by New Delhi represented a sharp contrast to its defiant approach to similar charges in Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday accused India of violating his country’s sovereignty.
Canada has separately alleged India arranged a plot on its soil that ended in the killing last year of a Sikh separatist, who was a naturalised Canadian citizen, outside a Vancouver temple.
Canada and India on Monday expelled each other’s ambassadors as Ottawa said the Indian campaign went further than previously reported.
AFP
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