The US hopes the inquiry by India into the foiled plot to kill a Khalistani activist will nail those "responsible" for it and not merely, by implication, those who tried to carry it out.
Nikhil Gupta, an Indian businessman accused by the US of implementing the plot by trying to hire a killer, is already in US custody after extradition from Poland, where authorities had stopped him.
We've already prosecuted Vikas Yadav, a former operative of RAW, also linked to the same case. The FBI has distributed "Wanted" posters providing information for a reward if an informant leads to his arrest.
"We look to India's Enquiry Committee to complete a full investigation that eventually results in accountability to those responsible for deadly plotting here in the US, " Vedant Patel a State Department spokesperson.
"This matter is under investigation here and in India.
That statement came in response to a request seeking clarification from the US State Department on remarks by its spokesperson Vedant Patel at a daily briefing in which he said the US expects "meaningful accountability" from India.
India had constituted an inquiry committee to investigate charges filed by federal US prosecutors in New York in 2023 in a murder-for-hire case that accused Gupta of hiring a man to kill the activist and making an advance payment of $15,000 for the job. The committee visited Washington D.C. last week to exchange findings and updates with American counterparts.
One day after the meet, the prosecutors filed additional charges that named Yadav as one of the accused.
Through public remarks and private conversations, the US has heightened pressure on India, demanding accountability, though unclear as to what this means for India.
We would continue to expect and wish to see accountability based upon the results of that investigation, and certainly the US will not be fully satisfied unless there is meaningful accountability based upon the results of that investigation, Patel said earlier in the week.
Although the new statement does not clarify particularly what Patel meant by "meaningful accountability," it does indicate that Washington D.C. would like the Indian investigation to ultimately hold accountable those "responsible" for it.
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