US charges RAW official in Pannun murder for hire case

• Co-conspirator Gupta was previously extradited to US.
• US govt has reassured its commitment protect live: Pannun.
• Vikash Yadav provided Gupta with Pannun’s address.

LONDON: The US has criminally charged a senior official of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) spy service for directing a foiled assassination plot against the Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City last year, escalating attemps to hold the Indian government accountable for the act of violence and terror on US soil.

Vikash Yadav — an officer in India’s foreign intelligence service who was named by the federal prosecutors for the first time in Thursday’s superseding indictment — is charged with money laundering, conspiracy and leading a murder-for-hire scheme to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US and Canadian citizen who serves as general counsel for the New York-based Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) which has been galvanising Sikhs around the Khalistan Referendum, seeking to carve from India an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.

Vikash Yadav’s co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, was previously charged and extradited to the US. He remains in a Brooklyn jail. Yadav — described by law enforcement officials as the “mastermind” of the scheme — remains at large in India and the US has now formally asked for his extradition to the US to face the charges.

The indictment alleged that beginning in May 2023, Yadav, described as an employee of the Indian government at the time, worked together with others in India and abroad to direct a plot against Pannun.

Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said reacting to 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. RAW Official Yadav is a mid-tier soldier who was assigned by NSA Ajit Doval and then RAW Chief Samant Goel to assassinate me as part of Modi regime’s policy to violently suppress the Khalistan Referendum campaign which aims secession of Punjab from India through democratic means.

“India’s Modi government wants to Kill me because as General Counsel to advocacy group "Sikhs For Justice" (SFJ) I am organizing the voting in Khalistan on the Question “Should Indian governed Punjab be an independent country?”

“The attempt on my life on American Soil is the blatant case of India’s transnational terrorism which has become a challenge to America’s sovereignty and threat to freedom of speech and democracy, which unequivocally proves that India believes in using bullets while pro Khalistan Sikhs believe in ballots.

“The continuous assassination attempts on my life in America and Canada by the Modi regime cannot deter me from organizing the voting for the independence referendum and I am moving forward with organizing the New Zealand Phase of Khalistan Referendum on November 17, 2024 in Auckland, NZ.

“Despite India’s use of violence against pro Khalistan Sikhs, SFJ is committed to democratically resolve the dispute over the sovereignty of Indian occupied Punjab through the means of Referendum. First by assassinating Nijjar in Canada and then attempting to assassinate me on US soil, India under Modi, has extended to the foreign soils its policy of violently crushing the Sikhs movement for right to self-determination. It's the same policy under which India extra judicially killed pro Khalistan Sikhs in Punjab with impunity during the 1990s.”

“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,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement on Thursday.

“The United States has continued to aggressively investigate the attempted assassination of a US citizen in New York by an Indian intelligence official, and to push India to conduct its own credible and transparent investigation,” said Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), speaking in general terms about the US investigation. “It is absolutely critical that every nation, whether they’re a partner like India or an adversary like Iran, understand that targeting anyone on American soil for extrajudicial killings is unacceptable, and the United States will catch them and hold them accountable.''

The Justice Department charged Vikash Yadav as some Biden administration officials grew frustrated with India’s internal investigation, reports said. The decision to do so now follows months of frustration among some administration officials with the course of India’s own investigation into the attempted killing. Some officials had privately voiced concerns that India’s probe would amount to a whitewash, the Washington Post said.

Gupta was introduced to a purported “hitman” who was in fact an undercover officer. Yadav provided Gupta with Pannun’s address, phone number and other personal information, and Gupta urged the “hitman” to carry out the killing as soon as possible but avoid timing the killing during high-level meetings between US and Indian officials, according to prosecutors.

Days before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the US, masked gunmen killed Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada. The following day, Gupta allegedly told the hitman that Nijjar “was also the target” and “we have so many targets.”

He said there was “no need to wait” to kill Pannun, according to the indictment. “It’s a priority now,” he wrote on June 20.

The latest indictment is a “grave example of the increase in lethal plotting and other forms of violent transnational repression targeting diaspora communities in the United States,” according to a statement from Assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division.

The Justice Department’s most-direct public confrontation with New Delhi over the foiled assassination attempt comes on the heels of Canada publicly alleging India’s broader campaign of violence against Indian dissidents, including allegations that the killing of a Sikh separatist was directed by government officials.

Yadav “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,” according to DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.

Canada on Monday expelled Indian diplomats, linking them to the 2023 murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a close ally of Pannun, on Canadian soil.

The US Justice Department says Nijjar and Pannun were associates, and said that Gupta, who was allegedly hired by Yadav, felt that after Nijjar's killing in Canada, there was "now no need to wait" on killing Pannun. The plot against Pannun was thwarted by US authorities.

This week, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India’s government of orchestrating violence in the countrys.

Trudeau levelled the charges during an inquiry on foreign interference, saying there are “ever clearer indications” that India violated Canada’s sovereignty by targeting Sikh dissidents in its territory.

India’s actions, Trudeau said, are a “horrific mistake”.

Trudeau said Nijjar’s murder was part of an even more extensive Indian operation, with Indian government representatives systematically targeting dissidents inside Canada.

“Violence towards Canadians … has been enabled by and in many cases directed by the Indian government,” said the Canadian premier, citing a national police investigation. He added that New Delhi, when presented with the allegations, had simply doubled down “on attacks against this government”.

While Canada’s government does not want to pick “a fight with a significant trading partner”, Trudeau said he would not waver when “standing up for Canadian sovereignty”.