WASHINGTON, United States — In the second indictment stemming from a sweeping case that appears to align with explosive allegations made this week by Canada’s Prime Minister, U.S. prosecutors have tied a senior paramilitary intelligence officer who worked for the office of India’s Prime Minister to political assassination plots across North America that allegedly employed Indian narcos and weapons traffickers.
Vikash Yadav, an Indian intelligence officer no longer in service, now stands charged with orchestrating a plot to assassinate an outspoken American citizen advocating for the creation of Khalistan—an independent Sikh state. The indictment not only implicates Yadav but, for the first time, raises pointed allegations from the U.S. government about the direct involvement of India’s highest office in targeting dissidents on U.S. and Canadian soil.
“The defendant, an Indian government employee, allegedly conspired with a criminal associate and attempted to assassinate a U.S. citizen on American soil for exercising their First Amendment rights,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray.
The investigation, spearheaded by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), continues to uncover the disturbing extent of transnational repression and state-sponsored violence targeting diaspora communities.
From his position in India, Yadav is alleged to have directed the assassination plot from afar, using a transnational gangster associate named Nikhil Gupta.
“We charge that Yadav, an employee of the Indian government, used his position of authority and access to confidential information to direct the attempted assassination of an outspoken critic of the Indian government here on U.S. soil,” said DEA head Anne Milgram.
Key to the conspiracy, the indictment states, was Yadav’s power to free the Indian drug trafficker from criminal investigations.
“In early May 2023, in a series of telephonic and electronic communications between Yadav and Gupta over encrypted applications, Yadav asked Gupta to arrange the murder of the victim in exchange for Yadav’s assistance in securing the dismissal of a criminal case against Gupta in India,” the indictment says.
The fact that Yadav was directly employed by the Indian Prime Minister’s Office has heightened scrutiny on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, linking this plot to broader allegations of state-sponsored crime. After the dismissal of six Indian diplomats, this week Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly suggested they were involved in clandestinely gathering intelligence on India’s targets in Canada and providing this information to the highest office in India, which in turn allegedly tasked a transnational mafia to target the Indian diaspora in Canada with violence, including murders.
The U.S. indictment further increases the scrutiny on Modi’s office, indicating that as Indian state security’s alleged plot to assassinate the New York target, identified publicly as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, unfolded, political considerations tied to Modi’s upcoming state visit to the U.S. came into play.
Gupta, while instructing the hitman (who was actually a confidential DEA source), made it clear that the assassination could not take place during Modi’s visit, which was scheduled for late June.
“Our prime minister Modi is visiting America on the 20th, so at least we need to calm down everything 10 days... so at the time of our prime minister's visit, it’s not good,” Gupta allegedly said on an audio call. The drug kingpin, according to the indictment, was following orders from an employee in the Prime Minister’s Office.
On June 11, 2023, after receiving surveillance photographs of Pannun from Gupta, Yadav messaged Gupta: “It looks promising... but we have today only... if it doesn’t happen today it will be done after the 24th,” referring to the expected date of Prime Minister Modi’s departure from the U.S.
The indictment also draws a chilling link between Yadav and the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent Sikh separatist leader killed outside a temple in British Columbia, Canada, on June 18, 2023. Nijjar was a close associate of Pannun, the intended target of the assassination plot in the U.S., and a leader of the Sikh separatist movement critical of the Indian government. The indictment alleges that Yadav sent Gupta a video clip showing Nijjar’s bloody body slumped in his vehicle just hours after Nijjar’s murder. Gupta forwarded the video to both the confidential source and the undercover officer minutes after receiving it from Yadav.
On June 19, 2023, Gupta spoke to the undercover officer by audio call, revealing that Nijjar “was also the target” but was "#4, #3" on their list, adding, “we have so many targets, we have so many targets. But the good news is this: now no need to wait.”
Gupta confirmed during a separate audio call with the confidential source that Nijjar was the target he had previously referred to as the potential Canadian "job," saying, “This is the guy, I sent you the video…. We didn’t give [the UC] this job, so some other guy did this job ... in Canada.”
In a change from his prior instruction to delay the assassination until after Modi’s visit, Gupta told the confidential source that the undercover officer should now kill Pannun as soon as possible, stating, “we got the go-ahead to go anytime, even today, tomorrow as early as possible. [The UC] has to finish this job, brother.”
He also warned the confidential source that Pannun would likely be more cautious in the wake of Nijjar’s murder, saying, “He will be more cautious, because in Canada, his colleague is down. His colleague is down. I sent you the video. So he will be more cautious.”
While the Indian government has indicated it will cooperate with U.S. prosecutors, Modi’s government is apparently sticking to a different approach with Canada.
Prime Minister Trudeau’s claims that India may be involved in state-sponsored crimes in Canada, possibly sanctioned by Modi’s office, have sparked an intense diplomatic row between Canada and India. Trudeau’s warning that India made a “massive mistake” if it was behind Nijjar’s murder has escalated tensions further.
During his explosive testimony Wednesday in Ottawa’s foreign interference inquiry—which stems from journalistic investigative reports by The Bureau—Trudeau was asked to comment on the extraordinary public safety warning made by Canada’s federal police on Monday.
“The decision by the RCMP to go forward with that announcement was entirely anchored in public safety and aimed at disrupting the chain of activities that was resulting in drive-by shootings, home invasions, violent extortion, and even murder,” Trudeau responded, adding, “Across Canada, particularly within the South Asian community—and largely, but not exclusively, within the Sikh community—this chain involved Indian diplomats collecting information on Canadians who oppose or disagree with the Modi government.”
Continuing, Trudeau said, “This information was then passed along to the highest levels of the Indian government and subsequently directed through criminal organizations, such as the Lawrence Bishnoi Gang, to incite violence against Canadians. The RCMP determined that this chain—or scheme—needed to be disrupted. By going public on Monday and expelling those diplomats, we aimed to break that chain."
As for the U.S. case, Yadav and Gupta now face charges of murder-for-hire and money laundering, with potential sentences of up to 20 years in prison.
One would fully expect the RCMP to make public statements about this matter and I think they should. Like CSIS it's literally their job to highlight risks to the Canadian people. I suspect the timing was in respect to the Americans announcement, so that Canada could have cover by the Americans actions instead of going it alone.
In terms of geopolitical realpolitic, the quote from Thucydides comes to mind " the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must". India is playing it's hand as an aspiring great power might. They know, irrespective of what the current Indian government does, they will always be able to negotiate with the Americans, as the Americans fear pushing India to align more with Russia or China.
Canada, being at best a middle power, has no such leverage. Trudeau can only attempt to make domestic political hay, perhaps weighing Muslim versus Hindu versus Sikh community responses. The previous criticism of Trudeau by India was the belief he was managing voter pools. In light of Melanie Joly's alleged recent statements to Tom Mulcair this is entirely possible.
Knowing they can effect relatively little, the Trudeau government can only make righteous pronouncements about an international rules based order which are at best sentiments for the Liberal urban voter base who don't know of, or wish to contemplate, the Thucydides Trap. Problem is, they undermined the credibility of this position by their highly compromised handling of China.
We (US/Canada) would not be in this disastrous predicament if these aliens/migrants/illegals/immigrants etc. were shut down from inception. Using Canada as an example, no protesting or demonstrating other countries political/religious rhetoric- NONE on Canadian soil. The ONLY flag flown is Canadian 🇨🇦 and ONLY “Canadian” issues permitted for protest. More rigorous vetting of immigrants.