The U.S. Justice Department has unsealed an indictment against former Indian intelligence officer Vikash Yadav for directing a foiled assassination attempt in New York City against Sikh American man Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Yadav was charged with directing the plot to murder Pannun, a leader of the Sikh separatist movement. The indictment alleges that Yadav asked an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, to arrange the assassination in exchange for the dismissal of a criminal case against Gupta in India. Yadav offered to arrange a meeting between Gupta and an Indian deputy police commissioner as part of the arrangement. Gupta then contacted an undercover source working with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to carry out the assassination, providing an advance payment of $15,000. The plot was intended to target Pannun while India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was visiting the U.S. in June 2023.
The indictment also references the killing of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in Canada in June 2023. Yadav indicated that Nijjar had also been a target, leading to the plan to strike Pannun. The attempt on Pannun’s life led to Gupta’s arrest in the Czech Republic and extradition to the U.S. Yadav faces charges of murder for hire, murder for hire conspiracy, and conspiracy to commit money laundering, with a maximum penalty of 40 years in prison. Pannun, the target of the murder plot, expressed gratitude for the U.S. government’s commitment to protecting the life, liberty, and freedom of expression of American citizens at home and abroad. He characterized the attempted assassination as an act of transnational terrorism by India aimed at suppressing freedom of speech and democracy.
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