Pannun plot: Former official wanted by US was held in Delhi

Vikas Yadav, a former Indian government official charged by the United States authorities for his alleged role in a foiled plot to assassinate Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, was arrested by Delhi Police in December last year in an unrelated extortion and kidnapping case, police sources said.

According to the sources, 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.

He was granted bail in April this year, the sources said.

According to the FIR filed by the Special Cell, Yadav told the businessman to meet him near the office of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in south Delhi on December 11, 2023, claiming he might face a 'serious threat'.

Accordingly, the victim along with his friend met Yadav who was accompanied by a person named Abdullah.

Yadav and Abdullah allegedly pushed the victim into a car and demanded money in the name of Lawrence Bishnoi, the first information report (FIR) said.

The accused duo also forced him to sign a blank cheque before dropping him near his car after threatening him with dire consequences if he told anyone about his ordeal, it added.

After returning home, the victim came to know that Yadav and his associate also took Rs 50,000 kept in his cafe and deleted all the CCTV recordings, the FIR said.

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 federal prosecutors claimed in an indictment filed in a US court 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 US Department of Justice said.

He had been identified as 'CC-1' (co-conspirator) in the first indictment.

Responding to the US 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 US soil.

The US has expressed its satisfaction over the cooperation from the Indian side in this matter.

The assassination bid on Pannun was foiled in June last year following the arrest of another co-conspirator in the case, Nikhil Gupta, who is presently lodged in a US prison after his extradition from the Czech Republic.