Indian ex-official of RAW indicted by US dismisses allegations, family says

An Indian ex-official charged by the US with directing a murder-for-hire plot has dismissed the allegations, his family said, expressing shock that Vikash Yadav was wanted by the FBI.

The United States has indicted a former Indian intelligence officer for allegedly orchestrating a failed plot to assassinate an American citizen who supports the creation of Khalistan, an independent Sikh state from India. 

The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced on Thursday that Vikash Yadav faces charges of “murder-for-hire and money laundering” for attempting to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. 

This indictment marks the first time the Indian government has been directly implicated in an attempted assassination of a dissident. The Indian government has stated it is co-operating with the ongoing US investigation but has not yet addressed the specific charges against Yadav.

Earlier this year, Nikhil Gupta, an Indian national implicated in the case, was extradited to the United States from a prison in Prague. Washington has accused Indian agents of involvement in an assassination attempt on Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen. India has labelled Pannun a terrorist, though he denies the accusation, claiming to be an activist advocating for Khalistan.

On Thursday, India’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, stated that the individual referred to as “CC-1” in the US Justice Department’s indictment is no longer employed by the Indian government. However, he did not provide a specific name, leaving it unclear whether he was referring to Yadav, who is widely speculated to be the same person.

According to the indictment, Yadav was the mastermind behind the plot to murder Pannun. He allegedly recruited Gupta in May 2023 to orchestrate the assassination in exchange for having a case against him in India dismissed.

The indictment states that “In or about June 2023, in furtherance of the assassination plot, Yadav provided Gupta with personal information about the victim, including the victim’s home address in New York City, phone numbers associated with the victim, and details about the victim’s day-to-day conduct.”

Yadav, 39, described the claims as false media reports when he spoke to his cousin, Avinash Yadav, the relative told Reuters on Saturday in their ancestral village about 100 km (60 miles) from the capital New Delhi.

The US Department of Justice charged Yadav with leading an unsuccessful plot to murder Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun last year.

Yadav was an official of India’s Research and Analysis Wing spy service, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.

India, which has said it was investigating the allegations, said Yadav was no longer a government employee, without saying whether he had been an intelligence officer.

“The family has no information” about him working for the spy agency, Yadav’s cousin said in the village of Pranpura in Haryana state. “He never mentioned anything about it,” despite the two speaking to each other regularly.

“For us he is still working for the CRPF,” the federal Central Reserve Police Force, which he joined in 2009, said Avinash Yadav, 28.

“He told us he is deputy commandant” and was trained as a paratrooper. The cousin said he did not know where Yadav was but that he lives with his wife and a daughter who was born last year.

Indian officials have not commented on Yadav’s whereabouts.

The Washington Post, citing American officials, reported on Thursday that Yadav was still in India and that the US was expected to seek his extradition. His mother, Sudesh Yadav, 65, said she was still in shock.

“What can I say? I do not know whether the US government is telling the truth or not.”

“He has been working for the country,” she said. The US accuses Yadav of directing another Indian citizen, Nikhil Gupta, who it alleges paid a hitman paid $15,000, to kill Pannun.

But in Pranpura, Yadav’s cousin pointed to the family’s modest, single-storey house, saying,

“Where will so much money come from? Can you see any Audis and Mercedes lined up outside this house?” Most of the village’s nearly 500 families have traditionally sent young men to join the security forces, locals said.

Yadav’s father, who died in 2007, was an officer with India’s border force till he died in 2007, and his brother works with the police in Haryana, said Avinash Yadav.

Another cousin, Amit Yadav, 41, said Vikash Yadav had been a quiet boy interested in books and athletics and was a national-level marksman.

“Only the government of India and Vikash know what has happened,” he said, adding that Indian officials should inform them.

If the government “abandons” a paramilitary officer, Amit Yadav said, “then who will work for them?” Avinash Yadav said: “We want the Indian government to support us, they should inform us what has happened. Otherwise where will we go?”