Vikas Yadav is on the FBI’s wanted list. (representative)
New Delhi:
Vikas Yadav, a former Indian government employee on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s wanted list, was arrested ten months ago by the Delhi Police on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping.
The former Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) officer has been charged by US prosecutors for his alleged role in leading a failed plot to kill Khalistan terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannoon, who holds dual US-Canadian citizenship. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday confirmed that the person named in the US Justice Department indictment “is no longer an employee of the Government of India”.
Vikas was arrested by the Special Cell of the Delhi Police in December last year following a complaint by a businessman from Rohini in northwest Delhi and a charge sheet was filed in March this year. Mr Yadav was granted bail a month later in April.
The businessman, who is said to have many contacts in West Asia, told police that an acquaintance of his introduced him to Vikas Yadav in November 2023 and told him that he was a senior government official. They soon shared mobile numbers to keep in touch.
According to the complaint, Yadav often questioned him about his work and friends. The former civil servant also told him that he was working as an undercover agent. But he never shared information about his work and office, the businessman told the police.
On December 11, Yadav called him and said he wanted to discuss some matter and asked him to come to Lodhi Road, according to the complaint. There was another person with Yadav when he reached the spot. The businessman claimed that he was forcibly abducted and taken to an apartment in Defense Colony, where Yadav told him that gangster Lawrence Bishnoi had given him a contract to kill him.
Yadav’s accomplice then hit him on the head and took his gold chain and rings, he alleged, adding that they went to his cafe and took the money that was there. According to the complainant, they left him on the side of the road and threatened him with a severe outcome if he complained to anyone.
Soon, the businessman went to the police and a First Information Report was opened in the case of attempted murder, criminal conspiracy and kidnapping. Yadav and his accomplice were arrested on December 18.
During interrogation, the associate told the police that he joined the conspiracy with Vikas Yadav as he was suffering losses in his old vehicle business. He said Yadav told him that his father was in the Border Force.
Vikas Yadav said he planned the entire crime the day he met the businessman. Delhi Police registered a case in March and Vikas got bail in April. Though Vikas was granted interim bail on March 22, but then he got regular bail in April.
US charges against Vikas Yadav
Vikas Yadav is facing three charges: conspiracy to hire an assassin, actual murder-for-hire conspiracy and money laundering. The charges against him and his alleged co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta were unsealed in the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York on Thursday.
According to the indictment, Yadav was the alleged mastermind who recruited Gupta to carry out the plot in exchange for helping him dismiss criminal cases against him. Nikhil Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic and extradited to the US in June.
Many of the details in the document repeat the same narratives made in earlier documents filed against the Guptas, but this time Yadav is identified by name.
“Yadav recruited Gupta to arrange the killing of the Victim in the United States and that, at Yadav’s direction, Gupta contacted a government ‘confidential source’ who he believed to be an ‘associate in crime,'” it said.
According to the document, the alleged plot began around May 6 last year when Yadav sent Gupta a message on an encrypted app, “This is Vikas… keep my name as Aman.”
In June 2023, they hired a “hit man” and agreed to a $100,000 payment to kill the “victim,” according to the court document, which did not name Pannon. Yadav and Gupta arranged through an “associate of Yadav’s” to give $15,000 as an advance.
However, the plot unraveled because the “killer” they hired was an undercover US law enforcement officer, according to the 18-page court document, which also includes a photo of Yadav dressed in military fatigues.
The charges came a day after an Indian commission of inquiry set up to investigate the allegations visited Washington to discuss the case with US officials.
Last November, US federal prosecutors charged Nikhil Gupta with working with an Indian government official in the foiled plot to kill Pannun in New York.
