New Delhi: Another suspect in the 2023 abduction case against former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer Vikash Yadav has moved an anticipatory bail application, ThePrint has learnt.
The suspect, Bikram Gogoi, moved the application Monday and the matter is listed for court hearing on 2 September.
In the previous hearing in the abduction case on 22 May, the Delhi Police had told the Patiala House court that the investigating team will file a supplementary chargesheet. Arguments on charges are yet to commence.
The abduction case against Yadav dates back to 2023 and he was arrested, along with co-accused Abdullah Khan, in December that year. Complainant Raj Walia, a café owner, had accused the duo of abducting and torturing him, and demanding ransom in the name of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
The former R&AW officer is also an accused in the alleged murder-for-hire plot against Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun and is wanted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The former R&AW officer was arrested just weeks after his name came up in the US indictment related to Pannun. Co-accused in the Pannun case Nikhil Gupta is currently lodged in a Brooklyn prison awaiting trial.
ThePrint had earlier reported that Yadav is alleged to have connections with Jalaluddin, a panel operator in the Mahadev betting “scam”. The Enforcement Directorate is probing the money laundering aspect of the Mahadev case.
Jalaluddin’s name had also come up in the 2023 abduction case against Yadav.
Complainant Walia, according to the chargesheet filed by the special cell, was told by Khan and Yadav that Jalaluddin alias Sameer had given Bishnoi the contract to kill him.
Jalaluddin was arrested on 1 July, but granted bail on 23 July after he submitted in court that both he and Walia had travelled to Thailand on the same day on 6 January, 2024, just weeks after the abduction FIR was lodged on 17 December, 2023.
Yadav has not been appearing for the case hearings, stating a threat to his life through exemption pleas filed by his counsel. He has claimed that the charges against him are false and frivolous, and since the particulars of his life are in the public domain along with his photographs, there is a “serious threat” to his life.
The next date for hearing in the matter is 17 October.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
Also Read: No CCTV or weapon of offence, chargesheet relies on Vikash Yadav’s disclosure in 2023 extortion case