The Justice Department on Thursday announced criminal charges against an Indian government official specializing in intelligence in connection with a failed plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader in New York City.
Vikash Yadav, 39, is charged with murder for commission in a premeditated murder that prosecutors first disclosed last year, but which preceded a series of politically motivated killings in the United States and Canada. He claims it was planned.
Mr. Yadav remains at large, but in indicting and naming him, the Biden administration sought to blame the Indian government for criminal activity that has emerged as a key point of tension between India and the West over the last year. But it reached its climax this week. Diplomatic conflict with Canada and expulsion of diplomats.
“The FBI will not tolerate acts of violence or other acts of retaliation against U.S. residents who exercise their constitutionally protected rights,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement.
The criminal charges against Yadav were announced the same week that two members of the Indian Commission of Inquiry, which is probing the conspiracy, were in Washington to meet with U.S. officials about the investigation.
“They have informed us that the individuals named in the Justice Department's indictment are no longer employees of the Government of India,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters before the case against Yadav was unraveled. He told the group. “We are happy with the cooperation. It continues to be a continuous process.
Canada said on Monday it had identified India's top diplomat as a person of interest in the assassination of a Sikh activist in India and expelled him and five other diplomats.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and law enforcement officials this week went public with allegations that Indian diplomats were sharing information about Sikh separatists in Canada with their home government and targeting them.
They said Indian government officials passed on the information to organized crime groups in India, which targeted the activists, who are Canadian nationals, for drive-by shootings, extortion and even murder.
India has rejected the accusations as unreasonable, and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs announced in response that it would expel Canada's acting high commissioner and five other diplomats.
The murder-for-hire plot began last year when federal prosecutors announced charges against Nikhil Gupta, who was scouted by then-unidentified Indian government officials to plot the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in New York. revealed for the first time.
Mr. Gupta was extradited to the United States from the Czech Republic in June after being arrested in Prague last year.
The redrafted indictment says Yadav scouted Gupta to arrange the assassination in May 2023.
According to the newspaper, Gupta, an Indian national living in India, contacted a person at Yadav's direction, believing the person to be connected to the crime.
Instead, the indictment described the person as a confidential source cooperating with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to the indictment, Gupta asked the person to help him contract with a hit man to carry out the murders and promised to pay him $100,000.
According to the indictment, $15,000 of the $100,000 owed for the attack was given by Yadav's associates to an undercover Drug Enforcement Administration agent in Manhattan under a deal between Mr. Yadav and Mr. Gupta.
Authorities said Yadav, an Indian citizen and resident, directed the plot from India while employed by India's Cabinet Secretariat government, which houses India's foreign intelligence agency. According to the Ministry of Justice, Yadav described his role as a “senior field officer” with “security management” and “intelligence” responsibilities.
As the assassination plot was hatched in June 2023, Yadav provided personal information about the Sikh separatist leader, including his New York City home address, phone number, and details of his daily activities, to Gupta, who I told you. An undercover DEA operative, according to court documents.
According to the indictment, Mr. Yadav instructed Mr. Gupta to provide periodic updates on the progress of the assassination plot and to inform Mr. Gupta's intended victim, Gurpatwant, who had advocated the creation of a sovereign Sikh state. It is said that he sent surveillance photos of Shin Pan-eun.
U.S. authorities said the attack occurred days after Pannun's murder. Hardeep Singh Nijjara Sikh activist in exile from India, was shot and killed on June 18, 2023, outside a cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia.
Prosecutors say the goal was to kill at least four people in Canada and the United States by June 29, 2023, and more after that.
Panun said in a statement that the charges mean the U.S. government “reaffirms its commitment to its fundamental constitutional obligation to protect the life, liberty, and freedom of expression of Americans at home and abroad.” Ta.
He added: “The attempt on my life on American soil is a clear case of cross-border terrorism in India that poses a challenge to American sovereignty and a threat to free speech and democracy. It clearly proves that India believes in using bullets while defending Khalistan Sikhs,” he added. Trust the ballot. ”
