New Delhi: A supplementary chargesheet will be filed in the 2023 kidnapping and attempted murder case against former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer Vikash Yadav, the investigating officer told the court during the latest hearing on 22 May, ThePrint has learnt.
Arguments on charges were supposed to commence in the matter in this month’s hearing at Delhi’s Patiala House court. However, according to sources, the investigating team said that the probe is still underway, and the judge asked the investigating officer to file the supplementary chargesheet on or before the date of next hearing—25 August.
“The judge has ordered that the investigating team files the supplementary chargesheet by 25 August. Arguments on charges cannot commence until then,” a source privy to the matter said.
Yadav has not been appearing for the case hearings, citing threat to his life through exemption pleas filed by his counsels. He has claimed that the charges against him are false and frivolous, and since the particulars of his life are in public domain along with his photographs, it has exposed a “serious threat” to his life.
The former R&AW officer is also an accused in the alleged murder-for-hire plot against Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. While Nikhil Gupta, co-accused in this case, continues to remain behind bars in a Brooklyn prison, Yadav is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The one in India against Yadav pertains to a Special Cell case against him and one Abdullah Khan on charges of extortion, kidnapping and attempt to murder. Yadav was arrested in the matter in December 2023 after the complainant alleged that he and Khan abducted and tortured him, and demanded ransom in the name of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
The first chargesheet filed in the matter, as ThePrint reported in October last year, relied heavily on the former R&AW officer’s disclosure.
(Edited by Mannat Chugh)
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