On US List of Wanted, Vikas Yadav was Arrested by Delhi Police for Murder, Kidnapping

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Oct 19: A former officer of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) Vikas Yadav, named as a co-conspirator for the foiled murder bid of the American-Canada citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and is on its waned list was actually arrested by the Delhi police in December, last year, on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping.

While the FBI charge-sheet describe Vikas Yadav as an employee of the Government of India, the Ministry of External Affairs has confirmed that the individual named in the US Justice Department’s indictment was “no longer an employee of the government of India.”

Vikas was charged by the U.S. authorities for his alleged role in a foiled plot to assassinate Sikh separatist Pannun on American soil in June, last year. But the assassination bid on Mr Pannun was foiled following the arrest of another co-conspirator in the case Nikhil Gupta, who is presently lodged in a U.S. prison after his extradition from the Czech Republic where he was arrested days before the attack on Pannun.

The police sources said on Saturday that the Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested Yadav (39) on December 18, 2023, for allegedly kidnapping a businessman living in Rohini and demanding money in the name of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.

The businessman – who is said to have many contacts in west Asia – told police that his acquaintance had introduced him to Vikas Yadav in November 2023 and told him that he was a senior government officer. They soon shared mobile numbers to stay in touch.

According to the complaint, Yadav often asked him about his work and friends. The former government employee had also told him that he worked as an undercover agent. But, he never shared any information about his work and office, the businessman told the police.

According to the FIR filed by the Special Cell, On December 11, Yadav called him and said he wanted to discuss some issue and asked him to come to Lodhi Road and meet him near the office of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) claiming he might face a “serious threat.” If he failed to make it. Accordingly, the victim along with his friend met Yadav who was accompanied by a person named Abdullah.

When he reached the location, the businessman claimed, they forcibly kidnapped him and took him to a flat in Defence Colony, where Yadav told him that gangster Lawrence Bishnoi had given him a contract to kill him. Yadav’s associate then hit him on the head and took away his gold chain and rings, he alleged, adding they went to his cafe and took whatever cash was there. According to the complainant, the accused duo also forced him to sign a blank cheque before they left him on the side of a road and threatened him with a dire outcome if he complained to anyone.

The businessman soon went to the police and a First Information Report or FIR was filed in the case under the sections of attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and kidnapping. Yadav and his associate were arrested on December 18. During interrogation, the associate told the police that he joined the conspiracy with Vikas Yadav as he had suffered losses in his business of old vehicles. He said Yadav told him that his father was in the Border Security Force.

The police booked Yadav and Abdullah under sections 364A (kidnapping for ransom), 307 (attempt to murder), 328 (causing harm to another person using poison), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrong restraint), 392 (robbery), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

The police filed a charge sheet naming Yadav on March 13 this year before he was granted interim bail for six days on March 22 on grounds of “illness” of his one-year-old daughter. On April 22, the court granted regular bail to Yadav. Notably, the interim bail order referred to Yadav as “an ex-government employee having clean antecedents.”

On Thursday, the U.S. federal prosecutors claimed in an Indictment that Yadav was employed by the Cabinet Secretariat, which houses the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), India’s foreign intelligence service. Yadav, who is at large, faces murder-for-hire and money laundering charges in connection with his alleged role in the foiled plot to kill Pannun, the U.S. Department of Justice said. He had been identified as “CC-1” (co-conspirator) in the first indictment.

Responding to the U.S. federal prosecutors’ claims, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the person named by them was “no longer an employee of the Government of India” as he denied any association or involvement with the plot to kill an American national on U.S. soil. The U.S. has expressed its satisfaction over the cooperation from the Indian side in this matter.

In the US, Yadav faces three charges: conspiracy to hire a hitman, the actual “murder-for-hire” plot, and money laundering. The charges against him and his alleged co-conspirator Nikhil Gupta, were unsealed in the Federal Southern District of New York Court on Thursday.

According to the indictment, Yadav was the alleged mastermind who recruited Gupta to carry out the plot in exchange for helping him get criminal cases against him dismissed. Nikhil Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic and was extradited to the US in June.

Many of the details in the document repeat the same narratives made in earlier documents filed against Gupta, but this time, Yadav is identified by name. “Yadav recruited Gupta to orchestrate the assassination of the Victim in the United States and that under Yadav’s directions, Gupta contacted a government “confidential source” who he thought was “a criminal associate,” it said.

As per the document, the alleged plot began around May 6 last year with Yadav sending Gupta a message on an encrypted app, “This is Vikas … save my name as Aman.” In June 2023, they hired a “hitman” and agreed on a payment of $100,000 to allegedly kill the “victim,” the court document which did not name Pannun said. Yadav and Gupta arranged through an “associate of Yadav” to give $15,000 as advance.

The plot, however, unravelled as the “hitman” they hired was an undercover US law enforcement officer, according to the 18-page court document, which also included a photograph of Yadav dressed in military fatigues.

The charges were filed a day after an Indian Enquiry Committee set up to investigate the allegations visited Washington to discuss the case with US officials. In November last year, US federal prosecutors charged Nikhil Gupta of working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Pannun in New York.