New Delhi: Former R&AW officer Vikas Yadav, who was accused in the US of an alleged murder-for-hire plot targeting Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has connections allegedly with Jalauddin, a panel operator in the Mahadev betting ‘scam’ case, according to the Delhi Police.
The Enforcement Directorate is probing the money laundering aspect of the Mahadev betting ‘scam’ case.
Jalaluddin’s name had surfaced in the 2023 Rohini case, in which Yadav was arrested along with co-accused Abdullah Khan for allegedly kidnapping and torturing the complainant, Raj Kumar Walia. Yadav was arrested just weeks after his name came up in the superseding US indictment related to the Pannun case.
In October, ThePrint reported that Walia, according to the charge sheet, was told by the accused that ‘Jalaluddin alias Sameer’ had given jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi the contract to kill him. Jalaluddin was arrested on 1 July, but granted bail on 23 July.
Jalaluddin, sources in the police said, is also wanted in the ED case. A Look Out Circular was issued against him by the Delhi Police, the chargesheet in the kidnapping case states. Sources said that Jalaluddin, is a native of Bihar and shifted to Delhi, before moving to Dubai for work.
However in his bail application in the Rohini case, probed by the Special Cell, his counsel stated that he has no “no prior criminal antecedents, is a permanent resident of Delhi with deep societal roots and undertakes to cooperate with the investigation and trial”.
The prosecution had pointed out Jalauddin’s alleged involvement in a separate ED case related to the Mahadev betting app case.
The basis of his bail application was the defence’s claim that both Jalaluddin and Raj Walia had travelled to Thailand on the same day on 6 January 2024, just weeks after the kidnapping FIR was lodged on 17 December 2023.
While the prosecution disputed this, and Walia denied going to Thailand on the same day, as well as the WhatsApp messages and the photographs as “manipulated and fabricated”, the judge—granting bail to Jalaluddin—said that “undisputed passport evidence revealing the simultaneous Thailand visit on 06.01.2024—which the complainant failed to disclose or explain—the court is satisfied that the applicant deserves bail”.
The prosecution had argued that Jalaluddin is the “mastermind behind the conspiracy, operating from Dubai, and his release could lead to tampering with evidence, influencing witnesses, or absconding, given his international links”.
Sources said that Jalaluddin had made hawala transactions of Rs 16 lakh to Yadav and Khan to kidnap Walia, who stated in a complaint that his kidnappers asked him to make some payment to Jalaluddin. However, Walia claimed that it was Jalaluddin who owed him money instead and he had refused to make the hawala payment.
Yadav and Khan, after allegedly making him sign blank cheques, asked him to arrange for Rs 20 lakh through hawala by 20 December, 2023 before they let him go, according to Walia.
A Delhi court had asked the investigating team to file a supplementary charge sheet by 25 August in the Rohini case.
Meanwhile, the counsel for Jalaluddin said that his client has no links with Lawrence Bishnoi. “The complainant Raj Kumar Walia was an acquaintance of Jalaluddin, and they have known each other for years in business deals,” advocate Lokesh Ahlawat told ThePrint.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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