A committee formed by the government of India to investigate the 2023 murder plot targeting a Sikh activist submitted its findings on Wednesday.
It recommended legal action against an unnamed individual, suggesting that the murder plot was the result of rogue action. The report also conceded there had been deficiencies in the government’s “systems and procedures” that it recommended tightening.
The committee was formed in November 2023 and welcomed by the U.S. after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) released an indictment accusing an Indian intelligence official named Vikash Yadav of orchestrating a murder conspiracy in New York City. The plot targeted New York attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an Indian American Sikh activist, who advocates for the creation of an independent Sikh nation broken out of India’s northwest. The plot was foiled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) through the use of government informants.
While the committee did not name the culprit, Yadav is the only Indian official accused in the DOJ’s indictment. The culprit’s prior criminal links had come to light during the inquiry, the press release noted. In December 2023, a month after the inquiry began, Yadav was arrested in New Delhi over an unrelated extortion plot, according to Indian Express. He spent four months in jail and is currently out on bail.
Yadav is currently on the FBI’s wanted list. However, the U.S. has not sought Yadav’s extradition.
The exposure of the plot made international headlines in November 2023 when the indictment from the Southern District of New York was unsealed. According to the details in the SDNY indictment, Yadav, in collusion with an Indian drug trafficker named Nikhil Gupta, tapped a hitman in New York to carry out the assassination of Pannun for $100,000, with a $15,000 advance payment for the hit.
The purported hitman was an undercover law enforcement officer, and the plot was exposed, yielding a cache of texts between the conspirators. Gupta, who played the role of middleman, was arrested while on a trip to the Czech Republic and is currently awaiting trial in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
The exposure of the murder plot came on the heels of Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s accusation that the June 2023 murder of a Sikh activist in Surrey, British Columbia, had been orchestrated by the Indian government at its highest levels. The Indian government denied both accusations, demanding evidence.
Pannun, who is a dual U.S. and Canadian citizen, did not mince words in a December 2023 interview with Time Magazine.
“The Indian government and the Modi regime want to kill me,” he said, naming the Indian prime minister Narendra Modi.
According to a report by the New York Times, the details revealed in the SDNY indictment caused surprise and disbelief among White House officials, according to The New York Times.
Pannun, who is the general counsel of New York-based group Sikhs For Justice, advocates for the creation of a Sikh homeland called Khalistan. The group has organized referendums in over a dozen western cities where people of the Sikh faith can register to vote on the question. The referendums, though widely attended, are non-binding.
The Indian government considers Pannun’s activities a threat to national integrity. In 2020, he was designated as a terrorist under India’s Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Along with the advocacy for Khalistan, the circular from the government of India also accuses Pannun of “providing financial help to youths in region for creating violence or fear.”
While the report from the committee set up by the Indian government conceded deficiencies, by blaming a rogue actor, it also served to distance the higher levels of the government from the foiled murder plot.
The Biden administration, which has strenuously tried to promote a positive relationship with India, did not push back. The U.S.’s ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, called the committee’s report a “positive step” in an interview with The Hindu, demanding that the rogue actor face legal accountability.
AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.
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