The US has criminally charged a senior official of India’s Research and Analysis Wing spy service for directing a foiled assassination plot against the Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City last year, escalating an attempt 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 galvanizing Sikhs around the Khalistan Referendum, seeking to carve from India an independent Sikh state called Khalistan.
“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 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.
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.
Gupta was introduced to a purported “hitman” who was 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.
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said reacting to the indictment: “By indicting RAW Official Vikash Yadav in the ‘Murder For Hire’ Plot, the US Government has reassured its commitment to a fundamental constitutional duty to protect the life, liberty, and freedom of expression of the US Citizen at home and abroad.
