New Delhi: The crux of the chargesheet filed by Delhi Police Special Cell in the 2023 attempted murder, kidnapping and extortion case involving former RAW officer Vikash Yadav relied heavily on his disclosure statement which narrates his version of what unfolded on 11 December last year, though without ascribing any motive.
Yadav’s disclosure mentioned that he and his ‘associate’, co-accused Abdullah Khan, kidnapped the complainant and took him to a flat. They then assaulted him, threatened him at gunpoint, took away his watch, gold chain and rings and demanded he arrange the money through hawala to pay them. The disclosure, however, fell silent on why Yadav targeted the complainant, Raj Kumar Walia—who owns a cafe in the national capital.
The FIR against Yadav was lodged on 17 December 2023, weeks after the US Justice Department on 29 November unsealed the first indictment in a “foiled assassination plot”. It implicated Yadav, though not by name at the time, in the alleged plot to target Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) legal counsel and founder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US citizen.
The FIR naming Yadav was lodged with the Special Cell on a complaint by Walia who accused him and Khan of extortion in the name of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
The chargesheet against Yadav, filed earlier this year in a Delhi court and accessed by ThePrint, did not mention Yadav’s profession and added that he was arrested from his accommodation in Delhi’s Andrews Ganj on 17 December—the same day as registration of the FIR—following receipt of “secret information”.
After Yadav’s detention, Walia identified him as one of the accused.
The chargesheet mentioned that only one gold chain and a ring were recovered on the instance of Khan, who was arrested two days after Yadav.
It also mentioned that when Walia went to meet Yadav on 11 December 2023 along with his friend, an “eye witness”, Khan pushed Walia into a car. The friend followed them from Lodhi Road to Defence Colony where the accused told Walia to ask him to stop.
Walia, according to the chargesheet, was told that one “Jalaluddin alias Sameer” had given Bishnoi the contract to kill him. Investigators have stated in the chargesheet that a LOC (lookout circular) will be opened after they are able to establish the identity of ‘Jalaluddin’.
“It is further submitted that during PC (police custody) remand the accused persons did not cooperate fully due to which weapon of offence was not recovered and no more recovery was affected on their instance and they were sent to judicial custody on 23.12.2023,” said the chargesheet, adding that bills of the gold chain recovered from one of the accused couldn’t be submitted since Walia claimed he had received it as a gift.
It also noted call detail records (CDR), customer application form and other technical data regarding mobile numbers of the complainant, witness, and accused are being obtained. But there is no mention of the medico-legal-case report in the list of attached documents.
What disclosure statement says
On his part, Yadav said in his disclosure that he “called the complainant” on 11 December and told him his life was in danger. “I asked him to come near the NIA office near Lodhi Road around 12 pm,” it went on to add.
Yadav’s disclosure also mentioned he and Khan took from Walia the key to the cafe from where they secured his cheque book. They then made Walia forcibly sign two cheques and told him to arrange Rs 20 lakh through hawala by 20 December, before letting him go.
Yadav also claimed he met Walia first in November 2023 at a social gathering. According to Yadav, he and Walia exchanged numbers and “became friends”. “Raj Kumar Walia has a good business and has money deals abroad and also runs a cafe in Moti Nagar. I and my associate Abdullah Khan orchestrated a plan to extort Raj Kumar Walia,” he told the police.
A similar claim was made by Khan who, according to his disclosure, told the police that he met Yadav at a cafe about a year ago. In addition, Khan also told investigators that he deals in second-hand cars and was in dire need of money owing to losses incurred.
Khan’s disclosure said Yadav told him about Walia, which is when the two hatched the plan.
What complaint says
In his complaint to the police, Walia said he was told to make “some payment to the Dubai-based person namely Jalaluddin alias Sameer”.
“The fact is that it is Jalaluddin alias Sameer who owes me money for which I have documentary proof. I protested and refused to pay any hawala or no hawala. All of a sudden, Abdullah hit me in the back of my head with some heavy object (now I think it could have been the pistol) and I almost fainted. At this time, one or two other persons whom I had seen in the flat appeared with some cloth masks and pistols in their hands and I was told that they were sharpshooters of Lawrence Bishnoi,” read the complaint.
In his complaint, Walia also stated that he was administered an injection by Khan. ThePrint earlier reported that Walia was accused in a 2013 kidnapping case, though him and eight others were acquitted in this case last year. In the 2013 case too, it was alleged that the accused administered some liquid to the complainant and “forcibly obtained his (kidnapped businessman’s) signatures on five or six cheques of his account”.
Walia’s complaint against Yadav and Khan, which is a part of the chargesheet, said the accused took only Rs 50,000 from the cafe when they went there to get his cheque book. It added that the two also took away CCTV footage of the cafe in order to cover their tracks.
Asked about the blank cheques that the chargesheet said Yadav and Khan had Walia sign, police sources said no money was withdrawn against these. Sources added that of the 8-10 witness statements part of the chargesheet, at least six were given by police personnel.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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