Washington/New Delhi, Oct 18 (UNI) The US Justice Department has filed murder-for-hire charges against former Indian government employee Vikash Yadav, 39, in connection with his alleged role in the foiled plot to assassinate US-Canadian citizen and Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York.
Yadav was charged in a second superseding indictment unsealed on Thursday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Yadav’s alleged co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, 53, was previously charged and extradited to the United States on the charges contained in the first superseding indictment.
India has conveyed to the US that Yadav is no longer a government employee.
Yadav remains at large, a Department of Justice press statement said.
“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.
Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) said: “We charge that Yadav, an employee of the Indian government, used his position of authority and access to confidential information to direct the attempted assassination of an outspoken critic of the Indian government here on U.S. soil.
US Attorney Damian Williams said Gupta did not work alone, and that Vikash Yadav orchestrated the plot from India and directed Gupta to hire a hitman to murder Pannun.
It said of Pannun and his organisation Sikhs for Justice: “The victim is a vocal critic of the Indian government and leads a US-based organization that advocates for the secession of Punjab, a state in northern India that is home to a large population of Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India.
The victim has publicly called for some or all of Punjab to secede from India and establish a Sikh sovereign state called Khalistan, and the Indian government has banned the victim and his separatist organization from India.”
It said that “Yadav was employed by the Government of India’s Cabinet Secretariat, which houses Indian’s foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing. Yadav has described his position as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in “security management” and “intelligence”.
“Yadav also has referenced previously serving in India’s Central Reserve Police Force and receiving “officer[] training” in “battle craft” and “weapons”. Yadav is a citizen and resident of India, and he directed the plot to assassinate the Victim from India.”
It said in or about May 2023, Yadav recruited Gupta to orchestrate the assassination of Pannun in the United States. Gupta is an Indian national who resided in India and has described his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking in his communications with Yadav and others. At Yadav’s direction, Gupta contacted an individual whom Gupta believed to be a criminal associate, but who was in fact a confidential source (the CS) working with the DEA, 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 a DEA undercover 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 for an associate to deliver $15,000 in cash to the UC as an advance payment for the murder. Yadav’s associate then delivered the $15,000 to the UC in Manhattan.
In or about June 2023, in furtherance of the assassination plot, Yadav provided Gupta with personal information about the victim, 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, which Gupta accomplished by forwarding to Yadav, among other things, surveillance photographs of the victim. Gupta directed the UC to carry out the murder as soon as possible, but Gupta also specifically instructed the UC not to commit the murder around the time of the Indian Prime Minister’s official state visit to the United States, which was scheduled to begin on or about June 20, 2023.
It also mentions Nijjar’s killing. “On or about June 18, 2023, approximately two days before the Indian Prime Minister’s state visit to the United States, masked gunmen murdered Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada. Nijjar was an associate of the victim, and, like the victim, was a leader of the Sikh separatist movement and an outspoken critic of the Indian government. On or about June 19, 2023, the day after the Nijjar murder, Gupta told the UC that Nijjar “was also the target” and “we have so many targets.” Gupta added that, in light of Nijjar’s murder, there was “now no need to wait” on killing the Victim. On or about June 20, 2023, Yadav sent Gupta a news article about the victim and messaged Gupta, “[i]t’s [a] priority now.”
Yadav and Gupta of India have been charged with murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
An indictment is merely an allegation. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law, it added.
