Ex-Indian government employee charged in US assassination plot

The Justice Department announced charges against a former Indian government employee in the murder plot against dual U.S.-Canadian citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a prominent Sikh separatist.

In a statement Thursday, the Justice Department announced the filing of murder-for-hire and money laundering charges against Vikash Yadav, whom it described as an Indian government employee. India says he’s no longer employed by the government.

Yadav is described as a former officer in Indian’s foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing.

Yadav’s alleged co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, was charged last year and extradited to the United States. Yadav, who is known by the aliases Vikas and Amanat, remains at large, according to the indictment.

The indictment detailed how Yadav recruited Gupta in 2023 to arrange the assassination, and contacted an individual at Yadav’s direction whom they believed to be a hit man in New York City.

U.S. officials said they began investigating when Gupta, in his search for a hit man, contacted a narcotics trafficker who turned out to be a Drug Enforcement Administration informant.

“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.

The indictment comes as an Indian government committee investigating Indian involvement in a foiled murder plot against a prominent activist in New York City met U.S. officials in Washington D.C. 

A spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs said at a press conference that “the individual who was named in the Justice Department indictment is no longer an employee of the government of India.”

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that the State Department is “satisfied with cooperation” from India and “it continues to be an ongoing process.”

Relations between India and Canada have hit an all-time low over a separate murder case, the June 2023 killing of Canadian Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said his country’s intelligence is pursuing credible allegations that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was behind Nijjar’s killing. 

The Hill has reached out to the Indian Embassy in D.C. for comment.