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Former Indian Spy, Wanted by FBI, Arrested in Connection with Delhi Kidnapping
Vikas Yadav, a former employee of the Indian government and who is on the FBI’s most wanted list, was apprehended 10 months ago by the Delhi Police on offences of attempted murder and kidnapping.
The former officer of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) has been charged by US prosecutors for his alleged role in directing a failed plot to kill Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual citizen of the US and Canada. The Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday said that the person who has been identified in the US Justice Department’s indictment was not a government employee.
Vikas was arrested from the special cell of Delhi Police in December last year when a businessman from Rohini in north west Delhi lodged a complaint against him and chargesheet was filed in March this year. Mr Yadav was released on bail after a month in April.
The businessman – who is said to have many contacts in west Asia – said that his contact made him meet Vikas Yadav in November 2023 and that the latter introduced himself as a senior government officer. They very soon began exchanging operational mobile numbers for closeness.
In the complaint, the man said that Yadav frequently inquired about his line of business and friends. He said that the former government employee also disclosed to him that he was an undercover informant. However, he never disclosed any details about work or office, the businessman said to the police.
On December 11, Yadav called him and said that he wanted to discuss some issue and asked him to come to Lodhi Road, as per the complaint. When Yadav arrived at the scene there was another man with him. The businessman said they abducted him at gun point and took him to a flat in Defence Colony, where Yadav informed him that gangster Lawrence Bishnoi had hired contract to assassinate him.
His associate then struck him on the head and escaped with his gold chain and rings, Yadav said, and his assailants also came to his cafe to collect whatever money was there. His testimony was to the effect that they dumped him by the roadside and intimidated him with a foreboding of a ‘worse off’ if he reported the matter to anyone.
The businessman later went to the police and lodged an FIR in the case under the sections of attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy and kidnapping. Yadav and his associate were arrested on December 18.
Beside this, during interrogation the associate disclosed that he went along with Vikas Yadav, associating himself with the conspiracy because he had business loss in old trucks. He stated that Yadav said his father used to work for the Border Security Force.
Vikas Yadav in his statement said that he planned the crime a day after he met the businessman . Delhi Police lodged an FIR in March, Vikas got bailed in April. Vikas got interim bail on 22nd of March but later he got regular bail in April.
Crimin: Allegations Levelled by US’ Against Vikas Yadav
Vikas Yadav faces three charges: including conspiracy to contract for the murder, commission of the actual murder plot, and money laundering. The allegations against him, and his alleged accomplice, Nikhil Gupta, were released in the Federal Southern District of New York Court on Thursday.
As per the indictment, Yadav was the accused mastermind who roped Gupta into pulling off the plan in return for eliminating the criminal cases against Yadav. Nikhil Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic and he was extradited to the United States in June.
Most of the particulars in the document are the same stories as the previous documents presented against Gupta with the only difference that now Yadav has a name.
According to it, Yadav recruited Gupta to eliminate the Victim in the US and that while acting pursuant to Yadav’s instructions, Gupta communicated with a government “confidential source” who he believed was “a criminal associate,” it said.
According to the document, the conspiracy started sometime around May 6 last year when Yadav messaged Gupta on an encrypted application: “This is Vikas … save my name as Aman”.
In June 2023 they themselves recruited a so called hitman and negotiated the price of the contract which was $100 000 for killing the ‘‘victim’’ the court document which Pannun was involved in did not reveal. Yadav and Gupta negotiated through an “associate of Yadav” to remit $15,000 which was for filming advance.
The plot however, began to unfold, as they say the “hitman” they hired was an undercover US law enforcement officer as indicated in the 18 page court document and a picture of Yadav in military fatigues complete with an Ak47.
The charges were filed a day after an Indian Enquiry Committee which was constituted to look into the matter visited Washington to meeting with the American authorities over the case.
Last November, US federal prosecutors accused Nikhil Gupta of conspiring with an Indian government worker to assassinate Pannun in New York.
