The US Department of Justice announced Thursday that it has filed criminal charges against an Indian government employee in connection with a failed plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.
Vikash Yadav remains at large but faces murder-for-hire charges in federal court.
The criminal case was announced the same week that two members of the Indian probe committee probing the plot were in Washington to meet with US officials about the investigation.
“The Department of Justice will not relent in holding accountable anyone – regardless of position or proximity to power – who seeks to harm and silence American citizens,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the charges.
These accusations come days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and police officials announced allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government in their homeland. Senior Indian officials were then passing this information to Indian organized crime groups who were targeting the activists, who were Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortion and even murder, they said.
Both sides ordered the expulsion of senior diplomats this week amid the growing crisis over the accusations, including Canada’s claim that the diplomats were linked to the June 2023 killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nigar.
The New York murder-for-hire plot was first uncovered by federal prosecutors last year when they announced charges against a man, Nikhil Gupta, who was recruited by a then-unidentified Indian government employee to coordinate the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in New York. York.
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Gupta was extradited to the United States in June from the Czech Republic after his arrest in Prague last year.
In a statement, the intended victim, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, said the indictment means the US government “affirmed its commitment to the fundamental constitutional duty to protect the life, liberty, and freedom of expression of the American citizen at home and abroad.”
He added: “The attempt on my life on American soil is a blatant case of transnational Indian terrorism that has become a challenge to America’s sovereignty and a threat to freedom of expression and democracy, which unequivocally proves that India believes in the use of bullets while the Sikhs of Khalistan support ‘We believe in ballot boxes.’”
The Indian government on Thursday denied that it was working with gangsters to target Sikh separatists in Canada as Ottawa had alleged, and even suggested that Canadian authorities were resisting India’s attempts to extradite these people to India.
Najjar’s killing in Canada has strained relations between India and Canada for more than a year, and although Canada has confirmed that it has sent evidence of its allegations to Indian authorities, the Indian government continues to deny that it has seen any evidence.
Jaiswal said again on Thursday that Canada had provided no evidence for its allegations surrounding the attacks on Sikh activists, which contradicted Trudeau’s statements this week that his country’s investigators had privately shared information with their Indian counterparts and found them uncooperative.
Four Indian nationals living in Canada have been charged with Najjar’s murder and are awaiting trial.
The accusations also tested Washington’s relations with India, which the West often sees as a counterweight to China.
India described the Sikh separatists as “terrorists” and a threat to its security. Sikh separatists demand the establishment of an independent homeland known as Khalistan, which would be carved out of India. The insurgency in India during the 1980s and 1990s led to the deaths of tens of thousands.
– With additional files from Reuters
& Edition 2024 The Canadian Press
