US charges former RAW officer over plot to murder Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun

New York: US prosecutors have charged a former Senior Field Officer of RAW, Vikash Yadav, in an alleged murder-for-hire plot against Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun residing in New York City.

In a strongly worded statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Thursday, “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”.

Describing Yadav as “an Indian government employee“, he 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”.

Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen who heads the Justice Department’s National Security Division, was more blunt: “To the governments around the world who may be considering such criminal activity and to the communities they would target, let there be no doubt that the Department of Justice is committed to disrupting and exposing these plots and to holding the wrongful actors accountable no matter who they are or where they reside”.

The charges filed against Yadav and his alleged co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta, were unsealed in the Federal Southern District of New York Court on Thursday.

The charges were framed by a grand jury, a panel of citizens that first decides if there is a prima facie case after the prosecution makes a preliminary presentation of the case.

Yadav faces three charges along with Gupta: conspiracy to hire a hitman, the actual “murder-for-hire” plot, and money laundering.

The charging document filed by the prosecutors makes a reference to the killing of a Canada-based Sikh separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia, that has led to a serious deterioration of relations between India and Canada.

It says that Yadav told Gupta that “Nijjar was also the target” and “we have many targets”, and sent him a video of Nijjar’s body slumped in his car.

It appears that US law enforcement intercepted or had access to the electronic communications between Yadav and Gupta, even those on encrypted apps because extensive quotes from those are included in the court document.

Gupta, who was arrested in the Czech Republic at the request of the US, was extradited to the US in June and produced in court.

Many of the details in the court document filed by the prosecutors repeat the same narratives made in earlier documents filed against Gupta, but this time, Yadav is identified by name.

The indictment presents Yadav as the alleged mastermind who recruited Gupta to carry out the plot in exchange for helping him get criminal cases against him dismissed, and directed him.

It says that “Yadav recruited Gupta to orchestrate the assassination of the Victim in the United States” and that under Yadav’s “directions,” Gupta contacted a government “confidential source” who he thought was “a criminal associate”.

This person, in turn, put him in touch with the “purported hitman” who was, in fact, an undercover US law enforcement officer, unravelling the plot, according to the court document, which also included a photograph of Yadav dressed in military fatigues.

The charges were filed a day after an Indian Enquiry Committee set up to investigate the allegations visited Washington to discuss the case with US officials.

Judge Victor Marrero, who is presiding over the case against Yadav, has set a status conference on Friday when the prosecutors and the defence lawyer are to discuss handling the evidence and proceeding with the case.

The 18-page document filed by the prosecutors does not name any other Indian official.

Neither does it name Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the leader of the separatist group, Sikhs for Justice, who was reportedly the target of the alleged plot.

It only says that the “Victim” was “an attorney and political activist who is a US citizen of Indian origin living in New York City” and leads “a US-based organisation that advocates for the secession of Punjab” to establish Khalistan. The Indian government has banned the “Victim” and his separatist organisation, it noted.

Also Read: ‘Can’t ignore threat from Khalistanis’ Says Analyst Michael Rubin

Also Watch: