New Delhi: Citing sources in the American government and US intelligence agencies, The Washington Post has named a RAW officer, Vikram Yadav, in connection with the alleged plot to assassinate Sikh extremist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US, an operation which it said was sanctioned by then spy chief Samant Goel.
The report, which names the main accused (Yadav), identified till now as CC1 in a US Justice Department indictment, says he was a CRPF officer who moved to the RAW. The Justice Department has opted not to bring charges against Yadav for the time being. This is a part of the US’s strategy not to disrupt ties with India, the report said.
The Washington Post also reported that “US. spy agencies have more tentatively assessed that Modi’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, was probably aware of RAW’s plans to kill Sikh activists, but officials emphasised that no smoking gun proof has emerged”.
The report came just weeks after what it said was a visit by a US delegation to take stock of the investigation by Indian authorities, who set up a high-level internal inquiry on 18 November, 2023. The report says that the US could still bring charges against Yadav if India fails to follow through on accountability.
It is learnt that the names and other details were leaked after the delegation “left with little evidence of meaningful progress”.
US President Joe Biden had brought up the case with Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he was in New Delhi for the G20 summit in September.
The report also said, “RAW officers and agents have faced arrest, expulsion and reprimand in countries including Australia, Germany and Britain, according to officials who provided details to The Post that have not previously been made public”.
ThePrint was the first to report on 30 November, 2023 the details of these expulsions.
The alleged plot first came to light through an indictment filed by the US Justice Department in November 2023.
“The plot in the United States coincided with the June 18 shooting death of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey, B.C., near Vancouver — an operation also linked to Yadav, according to Western officials,” The Washington Post said in its report.
The evidence of Yadav’s involvement came from “co-conspirator” Nikhil Gupta, who was named in the indictment as an accused in the plot, the report said.
US intelligence, which had caught on to the “plot” and was monitoring the encrypted texts between the two, managed to lure Gupta out of India to the US-friendly Czech Republic, where he was arrested.
“Gupta arrived in Prague on June 30 — 11 days after Czech authorities, acting at the behest of U.S. officials, had secretly issued an arrest warrant for him,” the report said.
After seizing Gupta’s laptop and phone, US authorities were able to access the encrypted communication he had with Yadav, which formed the basis of the indictment against them in America.
On Goel’s alleged involvement, the paper said: “In reports that have been closely held within the American government, U.S. intelligence agencies have assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel.”
“Goel stepped down as RAW chief on June 30 (2023) — the day Gupta was taken into custody,” the report highlighted.
The RAW chief retired on 30 June after his one-year extension as the RAW chief ended on that day and was replaced by the agency’s operation head Ravi Sinha.
What is the US case?
The case by the US Justice Department is this: An Indian official (Yadav, according to the Post) recruited Nikhil Gupta to hire a hitman in America to kill the New York-based Pannun for $100,000.
Gupta, according to the department, reached out to a contact he believed was a “criminal associate”, but who was in fact an informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in America.
Gupta and Yadav allegedly agreed to pay the purported hitman an advance of $15,000 and an associate handed over the money on 9 June, 2023. Yadav at the time is said to have handed over surveillance details of Pannun to Gupta, who gave it to the purported hitman.
The US first brought the case to the notice of Indian authorities in August 2023. India has publicly stated that an internal investigation is being conducted on the basis of the evidence shared by the US into the role of Indian agents in the alleged plot to kill Pannun.
The Post’s report also detailed how the RAW’s external footprint extended to include Australia, Germany and the United Kingdom.
In Australia, two RAW agents were expelled in 2020 after collecting sensitive security information about the country’s airports and monitoring the Sikh diaspora, according to the report.
In Germany, a husband and wife were arrested for running a website on local Sikh activities while on the payroll of India’s external intelligence agency, while in the UK, MI5 (the country’s domestic intelligence service) had to warn the local Indian station chief against the alleged surveillance and harassment of the diaspora carried out by New Delhi’s agents.
This was in 2014 and 2015, when Goel, the former RAW chief, was serving as the station head in London.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
Also read: Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun asks to “embarrass,” “shame” PM Modi during LS polls
Cheap pressure tactics by WaPo to protect a known terrorist.