New Delhi: Former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer Vikas Yadav was Monday exempted from physically appearing in Delhi’s Patiala House Court for the third time in connection with a 2023 kidnapping and attempted murder case, ThePrint has learnt.
Yadav is an accused in the alleged murder-for-hire plot against Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Co-accused in this case, Nikhil Gupta continues to remain behind bars in a Brooklyn prison.
According to his counsel advocate Aditya Choudhary, the exemption plea was filed before the court on the same grounds as earlier — citing threat to his life.
His earlier plea, too, submitted last year for exemption stated, “false and frivolous allegations” and how his particulars “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”.
The court ordered that the arguments on charges will commence on 22 May.
In the last hearing held 3 February, it had directed the investigating officer to be present in court this Monday. The officer informed the court that the investigation was on. No forensic report has so far been submitted in the matter, sources in the police said.
The matter pertains to the case lodged against Yadav and co-accused Abdullah Khan by the Delhi Police’s Special Cell under charges of extortion, kidnapping and attempt to murder. He was arrested in December 2023 after the complainant stated that Yadav and Khan had 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.
Meanwhile, days before US President Donald Trump took office in January, an Indian government high power committee recommended legal action against an “individual” in connection with the foiled assassination attempt on Pannun.
The panel, however, didn’t name Yadav. It was set up to look into the allegations by the US on the alleged involvement of a former Indian official in the Pannun plot.
(Edited by Tony Rai)