An Indian R&AW official was involved in a plot to kill a separatist Sikh American national last summer in and around the state visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, federal prosecutors alleged on Thursday (October 17, 2024) in a damaging indictment filed in a U.S. court in New York.

The official identified as Vikas Yadav (39) was employed by the Cabinet Secretariat, which houses India’s foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW), the federal prosecutors claimed.

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Yadav, who is believed to be no longer a government employee, has been charged with three counts, including murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

He “remains at large”, the Department of Justice said.

His co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta was arrested in Czechoslovakia last year and is languishing in a U.S. jail after extradition.

“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 U.S. citizen is entitled,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said.

“The defendant, an Indian government employee, allegedly conspired with a criminal associate and attempted to assassinate a US citizen on American soil for exercising their First Amendment rights,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. The Indian government has denied its association or involvement with such a plot to kill an American national on U.S. soil. Following allegations by the U.S., New Delhi had set up an inquiry committee to investigate the matter. The US has expressed satisfaction on cooperation from India on this.

Unsealing of the second indictment comes within 48 hours of an Indian Enquiry Committee visiting here to have a meeting with an inter-agency team of officials from the FBI, Department of Justice and the State Department on these issues.

“We are satisfied with the cooperation. It continues to be an ongoing process. We continue to work with them on that, but we do appreciate the cooperation, and we appreciate them updating us on their investigation as we update them on ours,” State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters on Wednesday.

“The meeting that occurred yesterday — we updated — we being the US government broadly — updated members of the Committee of Inquiry about the investigation that the United States has been conducting. We’ve received an update from them on the investigation that they have been conducting. It was a productive meeting, and I will leave it at that,” Mr. Miller said.

“They did inform us that the individual, who was named in the Justice Department indictment, is no longer an employee of the Indian government,” he added.

Running into 18 pages, the indictment that was unsealed Thursday posts a pictures of Yadav in a military dress and also gives a picture of two persons exchanging dollars in a car in New York, which federal prosecutors said were the money being paid to the alleged killer by a person on behalf of Gupta and Yadav to assassinate the Sikh Separatist leader in New York. The picture is dated June 9, 2023 The name of the Sikh separatist, a U.S. citizen, is not mentioned in the indictment.

“By indicting RAW Official Vikash Yadav in “Murder For Hire” Plot, U.S. Government has reassured its commitment to fundamental constitutional duty to protect the life, liberty and freedom of expression of the US Citizen at home and abroad,” Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, general counsel to separatist Sikh for Justice, said in a statement after the indictment was released by the Department of Justice.

The damaging indictment alleges that Yadav along with his co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta plotted to kill the Sikh separatist leader in the summer of 2023. For this Gupta hired an individual to do the kill job. The unidentified individual, who was an informant to the FBI asked for $1,00,000 for the job and received $15,000 as an advance payment on June 9, 2023.

It was during the same month that President Joe Biden had invited Prime Minister Modi on a historic state visit, which took place on June 22. According to the indictment, Yadav told Gupta and the hired killer not to do the job immediately before or during the State visit.

The indictment reveals that there was a link between the murder of another Sikh separatist Nijjar in Canada during the same period. Federal prosecutors have shared communications between Yadav, Gupta and the alleged killer on the two incidents.

“A few minutes later, Yadav messaged Gupta, instructing: “let them also verify by their own… if they are able to get some proof that he is inside..it will be a go ahead from us,” a reference to giving the green light to assassinate the Victim as soon as it could be verified that he was at his residence,” the federal prosecutors alleged.

The Department of Justice said the victim is a vocal critic of the Government of India and leads a U.S.-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 Government of India has banned the Victim and his separatist organization from India. U.S. law enforcement detected and disrupted the plot to murder the Victim,” it said.

A US court’s summons to the Indian government over Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun’s civil suit, alleging a plot to murder him, was “completely unwarranted”, the Ministry of External Affairs has said. In a news briefing this afternoon, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri was asked about the summons by the US District Court for Southern District of New York.

The summons names Government of India, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, former R&AW chief Samant Goel, R&AW agent Vikram Yadav, and Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta and seeks a reply within 21 days.

“When these issues were first brought to our attention, we took action. There’s a high-level committee engaged (in this matter),” the Foreign Secretary said. He said this was a “completely unwarranted case”. “I invite your attention to the person who filed this,” Mr Misri said, adding that Pannun’s “antecedent is well-known” and that he is from an unlawful organisation. Pannun heads the radical Sikhs for Justice and is known to put out incendiary speeches and threats against Indian leaders and institutions. New Delhi designated him a terrorist in 2020.

In November, the UK newspaper Financial Times reported that the US had thwarted a plot to kill Pannun, who holds dual citizenship in the US and Canada. Officials in the Joe Biden administration later confirmed this.

In its first response, the External Affairs Ministry said it is a “matter of concern” and stressed that India has launched a high-level probe.

“As regards the case against an individual that has been filed in a US court, allegedly linking him to an Indian official, this is a matter of concern. We have said that this is also contrary to government policy,” then MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

In May this year, External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar said India is investigating the matter, but stressed that it would not impact the “upward trajectory” of India-US ties.

“The United States brought to our attention certain information in good faith because we also believe some of it has implications for our own system,” he said in an interview to news agency PTI.

“We are investigating it. But I do not think the fundamental course of the upward trajectory of India-US is impacted by this at all,” he said.

US Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti has told NDTV that this matter will not affect India-US ties.