US charges Indian government official in assassination plot targeting Sikh leader

By Gizem Nisa Cebi

ISTANBUL (AA) - The US has charged an Indian government employee with murder-for-hire and money laundering in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US national in New York City, according to the Justice Department.

Vikash Yadav, 39, who remains at large, is accused of orchestrating the plot from India with his co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, who has already been extradited to the US," a Justice Department statement said on Thursday.

"The Justice Department will be relentless in holding accountable any person — regardless of their position or proximity to power — who seeks to harm and silence American citizens," it quoted US Attorney General Merrick B. Garland as saying.

The target of the plot, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a US national of Indian origin and leader of a Sikh separatist movement, is a vocal critic of the Indian government, added the statement.

FBI Director Christopher Wray noted that the defendant allegedly conspired to retaliate against the victim "for exercising their First Amendment rights," and reaffirmed the FBI’s commitment to disrupt such acts of transnational repression.

According to the indictment, Yadav and Gupta planned the assassination and agreed to pay a hitman $100,000. They provided personal information on the victim, including their home address and daily activities.

"Let this case be a warning to all those who would seek to harm and silence U.S. citizens: we will hold you accountable, no matter who and where you are," US Attorney Damian Williams warned.

If convicted, Yadav faces up to 40 years in prison, with the case currently under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration and FBI.

Following a previous lawsuit filed by Sikhs for Justice, a US-based group that is part of a movement pushing for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan in northern India, New Delhi has rejected the charges related to the alleged assassination plot as “unwarranted.”

Pannun, the general counsel for Sikhs for Justice, has been designated a "terrorist" by the Indian government.

Last November, India said it was probing the US concerns over the foiled assassination plot.

The probe announcement came after Washington had notified New Delhi that it thwarted a conspiracy to assassinate the Sikh separatist leader on US soil.

The revelation about the foiled plot had come two months after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of allegedly being behind the shooting of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar on June 18 last year.

Nijjar was killed in front of a Sikh temple in Canada’s westernmost province of British Columbia.

Earlier, New Delhi said any attempt to connect the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, to killing plots in northern America was "absurd and motivated."