New Delhi: Former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer Vikas Yadav was Monday exempted from physically appearing in Delhi’s Patiala House Court in connection with a 2023 kidnapping and attempt to murder case, after he cited a threat to his life. Yadav has mainly been in the headlines as he stands accused by the US in a foiled plot to assassinate Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Speaking to ThePrint, Yadav’s counsel Aditya Chaudhary said, “An application seeking exemption from physical appearance for today was filed citing threat to his life, which has been allowed by the Hon’ble Court.”
The next date of hearing for this case is 24 March, for which the additional sessions judge has sought the presence of the case’s investigating officer, who couldn’t attend Monday’s hearing on grounds of Delhi election duty.
Earlier in November too, Yadav had filed a plea requesting exemption from physical appearance on the same grounds.
“That false and frivolous allegations have been leveled against the applicant and the particulars of the applicant such as his residence, his background along with his photographs have been published all over the world, exposing the applicant to serious threat to his life from nefarious elements,” he had stated in last year’s plea.
Pannun, who runs the banned terror outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), has dual citizenship in the US and Canada and is an India-designated terrorist. Yadav was named in the superseding indictment filed in November 2023 as a co-accused of businessman Nikhil Gupta in the Pannun plot case.
The first indictment didn’t identify Yadav, just referred to him as ‘CC1’, who Gupta was allegedly working with. After the superseding indictment was unsealed, Yadav was put on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) most wanted list.
Meanwhile, Gupta continues to remain in a prison in Brooklyn after he was arrested in the Czech Republic in connection with the Pannun case.
Earlier last month, days before Donald Trump took oath as US President, a high-powered committee set up by the Indian government submitted its report recommending legal action against an “individual”. This committee was set up in India to look into the allegations levelled by the US against the involvement of a former Indian official in the alleged Pannun assassination plot.
Though the statement by the Ministry of Home Affairs didn’t name him, it likely referred to Yadav.
“After a long inquiry, the committee has submitted its report to the government and recommended legal action against an individual, whose earlier criminal links and antecedents also came to notice during the inquiry,” the MHA statement said.
The Delhi case
In December 2023, the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Yadav in an attempt to murder and kidnapping case. The complainant accused Yadav and co-accused Khan of kidnapping and torturing him, and demanding ransom in the name of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
Yadav was granted bail in the case in April last year.
ThePrint had earlier reported on how the chargesheet in the matter was filed earlier last year which relied heavily on Yadav’s disclosure. Yadav’s case in India, complicates his possible extradition to the United States for the Pannun case.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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