Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is pictured in his office on November 29, 2023, in New York. U.S. authorities earlier said an Indian government official directed a plot to assassinate Pannun in New York City after he advocated for a sovereign state for Sikhs. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The United States is “regularly working” with India in its investigation into the allegations related to the plot to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S. State Department official has said. The remarks by U.S. State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel came after The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, named a Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer in connection with the alleged plot to kill Pannun on American soil last year.

India on Tuesday strongly rejected the claims, saying that the report made “unwarranted and unsubstantiated” imputations on a serious matter and that an investigation into the case was underway.

Addressing his daily news conference on Tuesday, Mr. Patel said, “We continue to expect accountability from the Government of India based on the results of the Indian inquiry committee’s work, and we are regularly working with them and enquiring for additional updates.”

“We’ll also continue to raise our concerns directly with the Indian Government at senior levels, but beyond that, I’m not going to parse into this further and will defer to the Department of Justice,” Mr. Patel said when asked about The Washington Post report, which identified the R&AW officer as Vikram Yadav and alleged that he was involved in the plot to assassinate Pannun.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Tuesday slammed the report by the U.S. daily.

“The report in question makes unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter,” he said in New Delhi. Mr. Jaiswal said a high-level inquiry committee set up by New Delhi to look into inputs provided by the US on the alleged plot was still probing the case.

“There is an ongoing investigation of the high-level committee set up by the Government of India to look into the security concerns shared by the U.S. government on networks of organised criminals, terrorists and others,” he said.

“Speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful,” Mr. Jaiswal added.

In November last year, U.S. federal prosecutors charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta with working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Pannun.

Pannun, wanted in India on terror charges, holds dual citizenship of the U.S. and Canada. He has been designated as a terrorist by the Union Home Ministry under the anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

The allegations about the failed plot to kill Pannun came to the fore weeks after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau claimed in September last year of a “potential” involvement of Indian agents in the killing of Khalistani separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 in British Columbia.

India had strongly rejected the charges.

On December 7, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said in Parliament that India instituted an inquiry committee to look into the inputs received from the U.S. in the Pannun case as the matter has a bearing on national security.

Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is pictured in his office on November 29, 2023, in New York. U.S. authorities earlier said an Indian government official directed a plot to assassinate Pannun in New York City after he advocated for a sovereign state for Sikhs. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The U.S. expects “accountability” and is raising concerns over the Pannun case with New Delhi regularly, said the State Department, responding for the first time to the latest details reported by TheWashington Post this week. Both the White House and the State department have responded to the report, that named an Indian intelligence official for allegedly ordering the assassination of a Khalistani activist in New York in June 2023, and also claimed that U.S. authorities believe that the R&AW chief and National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval were aware of the plot.

“We continue to expect accountability from the Government of India based on the results of the Indian inquiry committee’s work, and we are regularly working with them and enquiring for additional updates,” said Principal Deputy Spokesperson for the State Department, Vedant Patel, in response to a question about the Post’s article, where he didn’t deny its content. “We’ll also continue to raise our concerns directly with the Indian Government at senior levels,” he added, deferring to the U.S. Department of Justice, which has been investigating the alleged plot and filed an indictment in the case in November 2023, based on evidence including phone transcripts, photographs and the use of an undercover officer and an informant. The indictment against an Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta is expected to go to trial this summer, and is awaiting the extradition of Mr. Gupta, who denies the charges, who is in custody in the Czech Republic.

“This is a serious matter, and we’re taking that very, very seriously,” White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters, also taking note of The Washington Post report, adding that the U.S. was going to continue to raise its concerns.

‘Speculative comments’

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has also not explicitly denied the Post article, that was published on Monday, but said that it made “unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations on a serious matter” and that “speculative and irresponsible comments” were not “helpful”.

“There is an ongoing investigation of the high-level committee set up by the Government of India to look into the security concerns shared by the U.S. government on networks of organised criminals, terrorists and others,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said. The government has not so far disclosed the composition of the committee, and has not confirmed media reports that it had presented its report holding a “rogue agent” responsible for the plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the Khalistani activist wanted on terror charges in India under the UAPA. India continues to maintain that it is not “government policy” to conduct such transnational killings, but that it has raised strongly with the U.S., Canada and other countries its concerns over Khalistani separatist groups that target Indian diplomats and consulates in different parts of the world.

The allegations about the aborted attempt plot to kill Pannun as well as further allegations that India’s intelligence agents also ordered the killing of Canada-based Sikh activist wanted in India, outside Toronto, were first made by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressing the Canadian Parliament in September last year. India has more categorically denied those charges, that have led to a sharp downturn in India-Canada ties, and the government says that the Canadian government has not shared any evidence in the matter with it.