In December, the US Department of Justice charged one Nikhil Gupta and an Indian official for plotting to kill Pannun

Vikram Yadav, a former officer in the Research and Analysis Wing, had plotted an attack on Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, The Washington Post claimed in a report on Monday. The report said that Vikram Yadav had hired a hit team and forwarded details about Pannun, including his New York address.

In November 2023, The Financial Times reported that the US had foiled a plot to kill Pannun on American soil and issued a warning to New Delhi over concerns it was involved in the plot.

In December, the US Department of Justice charged one Nikhil Gupta and an Indian official for plotting to kill Pannun. The US officials, in a statement, said, "an Indian government employee, working together with others, including Gupta, in India and elsewhere, directed a plot to assassinate on US soil an attorney and political activist who is a US citizen of Indian-origin residing in New York City".

The department said that Gupta planned to pay $100,000 to an assassin – who, unbeknownst to him, was a confidential source working with the US Drug Enforcement Administration – to carry out the killing, with an advance payment of $15,000.

The department filed an indictment in a Manhattan court. The indictment report referred to an unnamed person, 'CC-1', who allegedly directed the plot to kill Pannun from India. He recruited Nikhil Gupta in May 2023 to orchestrate Pannun's killing, the charges state.

The Washington Post report claims that this 'CC-1' was Vikram Yadav. The report said that higher-ranking RAW officials have also been implicated as part of a sprawling investigation by the CIA, and FBI.

The report claimed that the US intelligence agencies had assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel. It also claimed that India's national security adviser, Ajit Doval, was probably aware of RAW's plans to kill Sikh activists, but officials emphasised that no smoking gun proof has emerged.

(With Agency Inputs)