India confirms person accused of directing plot to kill Pannun no longer works for government: U.S. State Department

File picture of U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller
| Photo Credit: Getty Images via AFP

An Indian ‘Committee of Enquiry’ into an alleged plot to assassinate a Sikh separatist in New York has informed the U.S. government that the Indian government employee named in the underlying Department of Justice (DoJ) indictment, is no longer employed by the government.

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“They did inform us that the individual who was named in the Justice Department indictment is no longer an employee of the Indian government,” the State Department’s spokesperson Matt Miller said at a briefing in Washington on Wednesday. 

Mr. Miller was referring to an individual identified as ‘CC-1’ in the November 2023 indictment. Sikhs for Justice chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is an India-designated terrorist and prominent voice in the U.S. for a separate Sikh homeland ‘Khalistan’, was the target in the alleged plot.

CC-1 directed the plot, the indictment says, in coordination with others, including a Nikhil Gupta. Mr. Gupta is currently in a detention facility in Brooklyn, following his extradition from the Czech Republic following his arrest there in June 2023.

Asked if the U.S. was satisfied with India’s cooperation in the investigation, Mr. Miller answered in the affirmative.

“We are satisfied with the cooperation. It continues to be an ongoing process,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mr. Miller had suggested that rather than cooperate with Canadian authorities who are investigating Indian government involvement in violence against Khalistani separatists in Canada, New Delhi had chosen an “alternative path”.

Canada and the U.S., allies and members of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing group, have been speaking with each other about the investigations, both governments have confirmed.

“The similarity between the U.S. and the Canadian case is also the fact that in both cases it is difficult to get the cooperation from the Government of India, notwithstanding the processes that are in place with the Americans,” Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly had said at a press briefing in Ottawa on Monday.