A report in an American newspaper agency has claimed that an officer of the Research and Analysis Wing Officer named Vikram Yadav instructed a hired hit team to kill US based Khalistani extremist and separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. According to the report, the US intelligence have assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by Samant Goel the chief of RAW at that time.
It added that Yadav was transferred back to the CRPF after the Pannun plot unravelled last year. There was no response from the Indian government to the assertions made in the report till late April 29, 2024. The US authorities had last year indicted and Indian national Nikhil Gupta for the plot, alleging that he was acting at the behest of an Indian official they referred to in the indictment as CC-1.
Gupta is currently imprisoned in Prague Jail, where he was detained last year by Czech and US agencies. While India had formed a high-level committee in November 2023 to probe the information shared by the US about the role of Indian officials saying it had a security bearing on India. The Government has so far not revealed any of its findings.
RAW Officer Vikram Yadav who was on a deputation from the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) allegedly forwarded details of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, including his address in New York, said a Washington Post Report, citing sources and a US indictment. The official is now back with the Central paramilitary force.
Given his background, Yadav lacked training and skills needed for the operation that meant going against sophisticated US counter intelligence capabilities, the post said. According to the report, the senior officials at the US Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had pushed to prosecute Yadav, a step that would have implicated the RAW in a murder for hire conspiracy.
“But while a US indictment unsealed in November contained the bombshell allegations that the plot was directed by an Indian official, it referred to Yadav as only an unnamed co-conspirator CC-1 and made no mention of the Indian spy agency,” it said. “Higher ranking RAW officials have also been implicated according to the current and former Western security operations as part of the sprawling investigation by the CIA, FBI and other agencies that had mapped potential links to PM Modi’s inner circle, the report said.
