US prosecutors have filed charges against a former Senior Field Officer of RAW, Vikash Yadav, for an alleged murder-for-hire plot against Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who hails from New York City.
In a very stern statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Thursday, "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.".
Describing Yadav as "an Indian government employee," he said, "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.
That was even more to the point, however, when Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, head of the Justice Department's National Security Division, said: "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 charges filed against Yadav and his alleged co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta were unsealed Thursday in the Federal Southern District of New York Court.
The charges had been framed by a grand jury, a jury that is a group of citizens first deciding if there is a prima facie case after the prosecution gives a preliminary presentation of the case.
Yadav is charged along with Gupta on three counts: conspiracy to hire a hitman, the murder-for-hire plot itself, and money laundering.
In its charging document, prosecutors make a reference to the killing of a Canada-based Sikh separatist, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia that has led to a serious deterioration of relations between India and Canada.
It reports that Yadav told Gupta: "Nijjar was also the target" and "we have many targets," it reported, and sent to him a video of Nijjar's body slumped in his car.
It appears that US law enforcement intercepted or had access to the electronic communications between Yadav and Gupta, even those on encrypted apps because extensive quotes from those are included in the court document.
Gupta, who was arrested in the Czech Republic at US request, was extradited to the US in June and produced before the court.
Many of the details in the court document the prosecutors filed repeat the same narratives made in earlier documents filed against Gupta, but this time Yadav is identified by name.
The indictment portrays Yadav as the purported mastermind who recruited Gupta to carry out the plot in exchange for his help in getting criminal cases against him dismissed, and who directed him.
It states that "Yadav recruited Gupta to orchestrate the assassination of the Victim in the United States" and that "under Yadav's directions," Gupta reached out to a government "confidential source" whom he believed was "a criminal associate."
The court document said that this man introduced him to the "purported hitman" who was later found to be an undercover US law enforcement officer, thus unraveling the plot. This document also contained a photograph of Yadav in military fatigues.
File charges were filed a day after an Indian Enquiry Committee set up to investigate the allegations visited Washington to discuss the case with US officials.
According to the reports, Judge Victor Marrero has scheduled a status conference tomorrow when the prosecutors and the defense lawyer are to discuss handling the evidence and proceeding with the case.
The 18-page document filed by the prosecutors does not mention any other Indian official.
Neither does it identify Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the head of the secessionist outfit Sikhs for Justice, who has been reportedly the target of the claimed conspiracy.
It merely states that the "Victim" was "an attorney and political activist who is a US citizen of Indian origin living in New York City" and leads "a US-based organisation that advocates for the secession of Punjab" to form Khalistan.
The Indian government had banned the "Victim" and his separatist organization, it said.
The document says Yadav who had used the aliases Amant and Vikas, was "employed by the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India which houses India's foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW).
Yadav has described himself as a "Senior Field Officer" with responsibilities in "Security Management" and "Intelligence" and has served in the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), "India's largest paramilitary force," according to the court paper.
He said that he was an "assistant commandant" in CRPF with 135 men under his command and that he had received "paratrooper," "battlecraft," and counterintelligence training, the document said.
He also furnished his residence as "CGO Complex" in New Delhi, which the document allegedly claims to be the headquarters of RAW.
It alleged that in June 2023, they reached an agreement with the "hitman" for a sum of $100,000 to allegedly kill the "victim" and Yadav and Gupta arranged through an "associate of Yadav" to furnish US dollars $15,000 as advance.
According to the indictment, Yadav provided Gupta with information about the "Victim," including his New York address and phone numbers, which the alleged conspirators transmitted to the undercover agent.
The document said that the alleged plot began around May 6 last year after Yadav messaged Gupta on an encrypted app, "This is Vikas. save my name as Aman.".
A few minutes later, Yadav called him and told him that he had a "target in New York," and another in "California," and Gupta replied, "We will hit all our targets," it said.
A week later, Yadav assured him that he had "spoke(n) to his boss" about Yadav's case and it was closed, and they proceeded with the alleged plot, according to the court document.
The document says that on video call, Yadav faced the camera towards three men in business attire in a conference room and said, "We are all counting on you."
Yadav elaborated on the manner of transferring the money and also asked him to delay the plot during the period of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit last June, the court was informed.
Gupta was held without bail in a notorious federal jail, Metropolitan Detention Center, whose other famous detainee includes rapper Sean 'Diddy' Combs.
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