The United States Department of Justice on Thursday, 17 October filed charges of murder-for-hire and money laundering against alleged Indian intelligence agent Vikash Yadav in connection with the plot to assassinate Sikhs for Justice leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City.
“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 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray.
The criminal associate referred to here is a person called Nikhil Gupta who was arrested in the Czech Republic and extradited to the US to face trial in the alleged plot to assassinate Pannun.
The FBI has also put Yadav on its list of wanted fugitives.
So, who is Vikash Yadav?
What are the allegations against him?
Why is this indictment important?
We will try and answer these questions in this piece.
Who is Vikash Yadav?
The notice released by the FBI claims that Yadav was born in 1984 and hails from Pranpur, which falls in Haryana's Rewari district. The notice has given pictures of Yadav in military/paramilitary fatigues – the US Justice Department has alleged that he had a stint in India's Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) before joining India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
These are the details about Yadav given in the US Justice Department's superseding indictment filed on 17 October:
"During the time relevant to this indictment (the plan to assassinate Pannun), Yadav was employed by the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India, which houses India's foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing ("RAW")."
"Yadav has described his position as a "Senior Field Officer" with responsibilities in "Security Management" and "Intelligence." He also has served in India's Central Reserve Police Force, India's largest paramilitary force. Yadav has described his position there as an "Assistant Commandant," with command of a 135-man company. Yadav has reported receiving "[c]ounter [i]ntelligence," "battle craft," "weapons," and "paratrooper" training."
"Yadav used "Amanat" as an alias, resided in India, and directed the assassination plot from India."
A report in The Washington Post says that Indian authorities have communicated to their US counterparts that Yadav is no longer employed with the government.
What Are the Allegations Against Him?
The superseding indictment of 17 October alleges:
"In or about May 2023, Yadav recruited Gupta to orchestrate the assassination of Victim (Pannun) in the United States. Gupta, an Indian national who also resides in India, is an associate of Yadav and has described his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking in his communications with Yadav and others."
"Gupta (is) to arrange the murder of the Victim in exchange for Yadav's assistance in securing the dismissal of a criminal case against Gupta in India." (The allegation is that Gupta agreed to orchestrate the assassination after Yadav assured him that a case against him in Gujarat has been taken care of).
"Yadav messaged Gupta that Yadav had a "target in New York" and another target in "California." Gupta replied: "We will hit our all Targets."
"At Yadav's direction, Gupta contacted an individual whom Gupta believed to be a criminal associate, but who was in fact a confidential source working with U.S. law enforcement (the "CS"), for assistance in contracting a hitman to murder the Victim in New York City. The CS introduced Gupta to a purported hitman, who was in fact an undercover U.S. law enforcement officer (the "UC")."
"Yadav subsequently agreed, in dealings brokered by Gupta, to pay the UC $100,000 to murder the Victim. On or about June 9, 2023, Yadav and Gupta arranged through an associate of Yadav for the delivery of $15,000 in cash to the UC in Manhattan, New York, as an advance payment for the murder."
The advance money that was allegedly paid by Nikhil Gupta.
"In or about June 2023, in furtherance of the assassination plot, Yadav provided Gupta with personal information about the Victim (Pannun) -including the Victim's home address in New York City, phone numbers associated with the Victim, and details about the Victim's day-to- day conduct-which Gupta then passed to the UC. Yadav directed Gupta to provide regular updates on the progress of the assassination plot. Gupta complied by forwarding to Yadav, among other things, surveillance photographs of the Victim that the UC had sent to Gupta. Gupta directed the UC to carry out the murder as soon as possible."
Yadav also instructed Gupta not to commit the murder around the time of the Indian Prime Minister's official state visit to the US, which was scheduled to begin on or about June 20, 2023.
"On or about June 18, 2023, masked gunmen murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada. Later that evening, just hours after the Nijjar murder, Yadav sent Gupta a video clip that showed Nijjar's bloody body slumped in his (Nijjar's) vehicle; about an hour later, Yadav sent Gupta the street address of the Victim's residence in New York City."
Why is This Indictment Important?
Now, an indictment in the US is an allegation – and it doesn't mean that the charges have been proven. However, it is still significant for a number of reasons.
Firstly, unlike Nikhil Gupta who is a person with a criminal background, Yadav is said to have been employed with the Government of India at the time of the alleged plot to kill Pannun. Therefore, this indictment is another step in the US' allegations that elements within the Indian establishment tried to carry out an assassination of a US citizen on US soil.
However, the bigger reason why this indictment is important, is the timing. It comes in the wake of Canada intensifying its allegations against India regarding the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in 2023.
So far, no direct operational connection has emerged between the two cases, except for one message sent by Gupta to the hired mercenary that Nijjar was also a target. While Yadav did allegedly send a visual of Nijjar's killing to Gupta, no information has emerged that links Yadav to Nijjar's killing.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was gunned down outside a gurdwara in Canada's Surrey by two unidentified assailants on 18 June last year.
(Photo: X/Altered by The Quint)
But the language used by the US and Canada in describing both the cases is similar.
Like Canada's position on Nijjar's killing, the US has described the Pannun plot as an act of "transnational repression" and an attempt to "retaliate against people exercising their constitutionally protected rights".
"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
“As alleged, last year, we foiled an attempt by Vikash Yadav, an Indian government employee, and his co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, to assassinate an American citizen on US soil. 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,” he added.
FBI director Christopher Wray said, “The FBI will not tolerate acts of violence or other efforts to retaliate against those residing in the US for exercising their constitutionally protected rights. We are committed to working with our partners to detect, disrupt, and hold accountable foreign nationals or others who seek to engage in such acts of transnational repression.”
“Today’s charges are a grave example of the increase in lethal plotting and other forms of violent transnational repression targeting diaspora communities in the United States,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. “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 US and Canada are both part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance – and there seems to have been a significant degree of intelligence sharing and cooperation between the US and Canada in the Pannun and Nijjar cases. In fact, Canada seems to have broadened its investigation into alleged crimes committed by people associated with the Indian government to way beyond the Nijjar case.
First the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and then Canada PM Justin Trudeau have recently accused senior Indian government officials of providing information to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang for acts of violence, extortion and intimidation in Canada.
However, the Indian government seems to have adopted a different approach towards the allegations made by the US and Canada. While the US has said that Indian authorities have been "cooperating" in the probe, Canada has said that Indian authorities were not cooperative at all.
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