New Delhi: The Director of the US’ Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Christopher Wray, will visit India next week, US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said at an event in Delhi Wednesday.
Wray’s planned visit comes amid a US federal investigation into an alleged plot to assassinate Sikh radical Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil. US prosecutors have alleged the involvement of an Indian government official in the suspected plot.
India has established an enquiry committee to investigate these claims and has vowed to take necessary follow-up action based on its findings.
The issue was discussed during US Principal Deputy National Security Advisor (NSA) Jon Finer’s visit to Delhi earlier this week, where he held talks with senior Indian officials, including External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.
Garcetti made the announcement at the Global Technology Summit — organised by think tank Carnegie India and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) — as he spoke about the “growing interest” in the US to understand India.
“There’s a great awakening in America — it’s happening in business and government — where everybody’s like ‘I got to understand India’,” he said, before talking about visits to India by top US officials.
“This was the Number 1 country she [US Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen] went to outside the United States. Four times this year. The Secretary of State [Antony Blinken] just came here for the third time. Secretary of Defense [Lloyd Austin] for the second time. The FBI director is here next week,” he added.
ThePrint reached MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi to confirm Wray’s visit, but he declined to comment.
Queries to the US Embassy on possible links between Wray’s visit and the Pannun probe did not elicit a response.
Last week, the unsealing of an indictment filed by US federal prosecutors revealed that they had charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta over the alleged Pannun plot.
The matter of the foiled “assassination plot” was reportedly raised by top US security officials with their Indian counterparts months before the indictment was unsealed.
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William J. Burns and the Director of US National Intelligence, Avril Haines, had travelled to India in August and October, respectively, to demand a probe.
A day after Finer left Delhi, the White House issued a statement saying the deputy NSA had “acknowledged India’s establishment of a committee of enquiry to investigate lethal plotting in the United States and the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible”.
Pannun, the founder of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), is a designated terrorist in India. The SFJ has been banned in India since 2019.
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)