US indicts ex-RAW man over plot to kill Pannun

Washington The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has named and charged a then serving, and now former, government of India official for directing the plot to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an American citizen that India has designated as a terrorist, in New York in June 2023.
The 18-page indictment, unsealed on Thursday evening eastern time (Friday IST) charges former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) staffer Vikash Yadav on three counts of murder for hire, conspiracy to commit murder for hire, and money laundering. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has issued a “wanted” poster, with three photographs of Yadav, that offers more biographical details of the Haryana-born 39-year old former officer who also went by the name of “Amanat” during the operation.
A New York court issued a federal arrest warrant for Yadav on October 10.
Yadav is the man identified in an earlier DOJ indictment as “CC-1” who allegedly hired an intermediary Nikhil Gupta to hire an assassin who turned out to be an American law-enforcement asset, to kill Pannun. The new indictment says that Yadav, who was an assistant commandant in the Central Reserve Police Force, served in the cabinet secretariat, which houses RAW, at the time of orchestrating this plot in May-June 2023. Yadav, the indictment says, described himself then as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in security management and intelligence.
The indictment terms Pannun as a “vocal critic of the government of India” who leads a US-based political organisation calling for the secession of Punjab and acknowledges that India has banned his separatist organisation. The FBI poster summarising the case terms Pannun as a political activist exercising his first amendment rights. Both the indictment and FBI descriptions ignore Pannun’s violent activities and status as a wanted terrorist in India.
The new indictment is rich in detail and lays out how Yadav allegedly orchestrated the plot.
It alleges that in or about May 2023, Yadav recruited Gupta, who acknowledged his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking in communication with Yadav, to get Pannun killed in the US.
“At Yadav’s direction”, Gupta contacted a criminal associate (CS) for help to hire a hitman for the killing, but CS turned out to be a “confidential source” of US law enforcement. CS introduced Gupta to the hitman, who turned out to be a US law-enforcement official (UC). The indictment says that “Yadav subsequently agreed”, in dealings brokered by Gupta, to pay UC $100,000 for the job. Through an “associate of Yadav”, they also arranged $15,000 to be paid to UC in Manhattan.
In June, Yadav gave personal information regarding Pannun to Gupta. This included Pannun’s address, phone numbers and everyday routine, all of which Gupta passed on to UC. Yadav also asked Gupta to provide “regular updates”. Gupta forwarded surveillance photos of Pannun taken by UC to Yadav.
Gupta asked UC to conduct the assassination as soon as possible, but not at the time of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to US in the third week of June. On June 18, however, a gunman killed Hardeep Singh Nijjar, another separatist that India designated as a terrorist, in Canada. Yadav sent Gupta a photograph of Nijjar’s body and told Gupta Nijjar had been a “target too”, they had “many targets”, and said that there was no need to wait anymore.
The indictment includes verbatim exchanges between Yadav and Gupta, including Yadav’s assurance to Gupta that his case had been taken care of in Gujarat, presumably the quid pro quo for Gupta’s involvement. It includes messages where Yadav is pushing Gupta to hasten the assassination. It includes the messages between Gupta and UC, and Gupta and CS, with specifics of the negotiations on money, and between Yadav and Gupta on how the money was to be arranged. And it includes messages where Yadav is categorically telling Gupta to tell his hired hitman to be prepared to kill Pannun at his home or office location towards the end of June.
The plot didn’t succeed. Gupta was arrested in Prague on June 30, 2023, at the request of US government for his involvement in the plot. Last year, DOJ issued its first indictment in the case charging Gupta. In June this year, he was extradited to the US where his trial is set to commence soon.
On Monday, four days after the arrest warrant against Yadav was issued, HT reported that India had told the US that he was no longer a government employee, a fact that State Department and then ministry of external affairs confirmed this week. An Indian inquiry committee set up to investigate the allegations also visited Washington DC this week and exchanged information with American officials, in a meeting that the State Department termed productive.
All of this suggests that the US and India have been closely engaged on the issue and explains Yadav’s dismissal from government service though neither the exact time of the dismissal or the grounds under which he was arrested are clear. It is also not clear whether he has been arrested and, if so, on what grounds. In March this year, Bloomberg reported that CC1 had been transferred out of R&AW. And in April, Washington Post reported that CC-1 was someone named Vikram Yadav.
But with the new indictment that directly charges a then serving government of India official, the Pannun plot has taken a turn that may have an impact on both India’s security apparatus and India-US relations for years to come.
These developments are taking place at the same time when India-Canada relations have nosedived. In September 2023, Canadian PM Justin Trudeau alleged that there were linkages between agents of the government of India to the killing of pro-Khalistan separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. India maintained that Canada had not shared any evidence, with Trudeau himself saying that he only had intelligence but no evidence for his claim. Canada, last week, then asked India to waive the immunity for its diplomats in Ottawa, including the high commissioner, so they it could investigate them, a demand that India rejected outright. Delhi decided to recall its diplomats and expel six Canadian diplomats.
All of America’s top law-enforcement officials issued a strong joint statement on how the US will not tolerate such actions on its soil. “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,” US attorney general Merrick B Garland said in a DOJ release on Thursday.
FBI director Christopher Wray said, “The defendant, an Indian government employee, allegedly conspired with a criminal associate and attempted to assassinate a US citizen on American soil for exercising their First Amendment rights The FBI will not tolerate acts of violence or other efforts to retaliate against those residing in the U.S. for exercising their constitutionally protected rights.”
Wray, who visited India after the DOJ’s first indictment, added that FBI was committed to working its partners to “detect, disrupt, and hold accountable foreign nationals or others who seek to engage in such acts of transnational repression”.
India was yet to respond to the latest indictment.