Indian RAW official involved in plot to kill Khalistani separatist in the US: Dept of Justice

US federal prosecutors have alleged that an Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) official was involved in the murder-for-hire plot involving a Sikh separatist on American soil. The prosecutors from the Department of Justice made the allegations in an indictment filed in a US court in New York on Thursday. This comes amid the ongoing row between India and Canada, where Ottawa has alleged the involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani terrorist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on Canadian soil. 

The prosecutors charged an official, identified as Vikas Yadav, 39, employed by the Cabinet Secretariat, with three counts, including murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The Department of Justice said, “He remains at large.”

However, his co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic last year and is at a US jail after his extradition. 

“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,” US Attorney General Merrick B. Garland 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,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.

The Indian government has denied any association or involvement with the plot to kill an American national on US soil. While the individual was not named, it is believed to be Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

Meanwhile, New Delhi had set up an inquiry committee to investigate the matter. The US said it is satisfied with the cooperation it has received from India on the allegations.

State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the individual “named in the Justice Department indictment is no longer an employee of the Indian government”. 

The indictment revealed pictures of two persons exchanging dollars in a car in New York. The prosecutors said that it was the money being paid to the alleged killer by a person on behalf of Gupta and Yadav to assassinate the Sikh Separatist leader in New York. 

The indictment alleges that Yadav along with his co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta plotted to kill the Sikh separatist leader in the summer of 2023. For this Gupta hired an individual to do the job. The unidentified individual, who was an informant to the FBI, asked for $100,000 for the job and received $15,000 as an advance payment on June 9, 2023.

The indictment reveals that there was a link between the murder of Sikh separatist Nijjar in Canada during the same period. Federal prosecutors have shared communications between Yadav, Gupta and the alleged killer in the two incidents.