Vikas Yadav is on the FBI’s wanted list. (Representative)

New Delhi:

Vikas Yadav, a former Indian government employee who was on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s wanted list, was arrested by Delhi Police 10 months ago on charges of attempted murder and kidnapping.

The former Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) officer has been charged by US prosecutors for his alleged role in masterminding a failed plot to kill Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual citizen of the US and Canada. The State Department confirmed Thursday that the person named in the US Justice Department indictment was “no longer an employee of the Indian government.”

Vikas Yadav, also known as Vikash Yadav, was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police in December last year following a complaint by a businessman from Rohini in northwest Delhi and a chargesheet had been filed in March this year. Yadav was granted bail a month later in April.

The businessman – who reportedly has many contacts in West Asia – told police that his acquaintance introduced him to Vikas Yadav in November 2023 and told him he was a senior government official. They soon shared cellphone numbers to keep in touch.

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

On December 11, Yadav called him and said he wanted to discuss an issue and asked him to come to Lodhi Road, according to the complaint. There was another man with Yadav when he reached the location. The businessman claimed that they forcibly kidnapped him and took him to a flat in Defense 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 that they went to his cafe and took the money there. According to the complainant, they left him on the side of the road and threatened him with a bad outcome if he complained to anyone.

The businessman soon approached the police and a First Information Report or FIR was filed in the case under the headings of attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and kidnapping. Yadav and his colleague were arrested on December 18.

During interrogation, the employee told the police that he had joined the conspiracy with Vikas Yadav as he had incurred losses in his trade in old vehicles. He said Yadav told him that his father was in the Border Security Force.

Vikas Yadav said he had planned the entire crime the day he met the businessman. The Delhi Police filed a case in March and Vikas was granted bail in April. Though Vikas was granted interim bail on March 22, he was granted regular bail in April.

US charges against Vikas Yadav

Vikas Yadav is facing 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 Thursday in New York’s Federal Southern District court.

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

Many of the details in the document repeat the same stories from previous documents filed against Gupta, but this time Yadav is mentioned by name.

“Yadav recruited Gupta to orchestrate the victim’s murder in the United States and that, under Yadav’s direction, Gupta contacted a “confidential government source” whom he believed to be “a criminal associate,” according to the report.

According to the document, the alleged plot started around May 6 last year when Yadav Gupta sent a message through an encrypted app: “This is Vikas… save my name as Aman”.

In June 2023, they hired a “hit man” and agreed to a $100,000 payment to kill the “victim,” according to the court document, which did not name Pannun. Yadav and Gupta arranged through an “associate of Yadav” to give $15,000 as an advance.

However, the plot unraveled when the “hitman” they hired was an undercover US law enforcement officer, according to the 18-page court document, which also included a photo of Yadav dressed in military gear.

The charges were filed a day after an Indian commission of inquiry set up to investigate the allegations visited Washington to discuss the matter with US officials.

In November last year, US federal prosecutors accused Nikhil Gupta of colluding with an Indian government official in the foiled plot to assassinate Pannun in New York.