U.S. Justice Department names Indian government agent allegedly behind murder plot against Sikh activists

The U.S. Justice Department unsealed another indictment last week implicating the Indian government in a plot to assassinate a Sikh activist on U.S. soil and connecting the Narendra Modi-led BJP to the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in British Columbia last year.

Murder-for-hire and money laundering charges have been laid against Vikash Yadav, 39, an agent of the Indian government. He allegedly directed from India a thwarted attempt to assassinate dual Canadian-American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City last year.

“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,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said October 17, when the indictment was made public, following the release of a similar indictment in November. New details of the plot including the name of the Indian government agent were included in the latest charges. “The FBI will not tolerate acts of violence or other efforts to retaliate against those residing in the U.S. for exercising their constitutionally protected rights. We are committed to working with our partners to detect, disrupt, and hold accountable foreign nationals or others who seek to engage in such acts of transnational repression.”

The highest ranking American law enforcement official, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, offered harsh words for the Modi government. 

“The Justice Department will be relentless in holding accountable any person — regardless of their position or proximity to power — who seeks to harm and silence American citizens. As alleged, last year, we foiled an attempt by Vikash Yadav, an Indian government employee, and his co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, to assassinate an American citizen on U.S. soil. Today’s charges demonstrate that the Justice Department will not tolerate attempts to target and endanger Americans and to undermine the rights to which every U.S. citizen is entitled.”

The indictments unsealed by the American DOJ include evidence that directly links the Hindu-nationalist Modi government to at least one killing in Canada and others that were being plotted here against Sikh activists including some involved with a global referendum movement asking Sikhs around the world if they would like to see the creation of an independent homeland in Punjab, called Khalistan. 

Pannun is the leader of an organization called Sikhs for Justice, and has led the referendum movement which saw Sikhs cast ballots in Canadian cities including Brampton last year. 

Sikh rights activist and dual Canadian-American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun was the target of an assassination plot allegedly orchestrated by the Indian government. 

(Supplied)

Mr. Nijjar was his Canadian counterpart and close associate.

The indictment, which is peppered with quotes from wire tap and other surveillance material, clearly links his assassination with the Indian agent’s attempt to kill Pannun. 

“Nijjar was an associate of the victim (the word used to describe Pannun throughout the unsealed document)... just hours after the Nijjar murder, YADAV sent GUPTA a video clip that showed Nijjar’s bloody body slumped in his (Nijjar’s) vehicle.” 

Nijjar is described as one of the “targets” of the broader plot that involved Pannun. Nikhil Gupta is the man now in American custody after his extradition from the Czech Republic; he was allegedly hired by Yadav, the Indian government agent, to arrange the North American assassinations and was charged in June with murder-for-hire. Yadav, according to the indictment, arranged to have Indian criminal charges against Gupta wiped away in exchange for organizing assassinations in Canada and the U.S.

“The boss”, Yadav told Gupta, had cleared his criminal problems in India. “Nobody will ever bother you again,” the Indian government agent told Gupta, according to the surveillance transcripts in the indictment.

“We will be needing one good team in Canada,” Gupta then allegedly told one of the coconspirators, describing Mr. Nijjar as a “big target” in Canada.

After receiving the video clip from Yadav showing Nijjar’s bloodied body in his car, and instructions from the Indian agent to have Pannun killed immediately, Gupta, according to the surveillance material, told a hitman he hired, that before June 29, 2023, “we have to finish four jobs”, Pannun’s assassination in the U.S. “and three in Canada”.

“Last year, this office charged Nikhil Gupta for conspiring to assassinate a U.S. citizen of Indian origin on U.S. soil,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said last week. “But, as alleged, Gupta did not work alone. Today, we announce charges against an Indian government employee, Vikash Yadav, who orchestrated the plot from India and directed Gupta to hire a hitman to murder the victim (Pannun). The right to exercise free speech is foundational to our democracy and predicated on the notion that we can do so without fear of violence or reprisal, including from beyond our borders. Let this case be a warning to all those who would seek to harm and silence U.S. citizens: we will hold you accountable, no matter who and where you are.” 

Explosive reporting by The Washington Post using unnamed Canadian officials directly links the North American assassination plots to the highest ranks of the Modi government, which continues to deny any involvement, despite the mounting evidence.

Officials told The Post a command “chain” including “Indian diplomats in Canada collect intelligence on alleged Sikh separatists” used by Indian intelligence to target Canadian citizens, singling out a jailed Indian organized crime leader named Lawrence Bishnoi who allegedly has helped the Modi government attack Sikhs here.

“Officials said Indian diplomats have used violence as well as threatened to deny needed immigration documents to coerce Indians living in Canada to serve as informants against Sikh activists. Canadian officials said this scheme involves Indian officials at the country’s consulates in Vancouver and Toronto… ‘The coercion goes far beyond threatening to deny visas, to include physical threats to them and their families in India,' said a senior Canadian official, who added that ‘the information is being sent to India at almost the highest level,’” The Post reported.

In even more damning allegations, the newspaper reported the man orchestrating this alleged criminal enterprise is Amit Shah, according to Canadian officials The Post spoke with. He is India’s controversial Home Minister, who oversees the country’s national security. Shah has made no secret of his views about religious minorities in the country, calling Muslims “termites” and “cockroaches”, in keeping with the BJP’s ultra-Hindu-nationalist position that India must erase all remnants of culture, identity, religion and history that are not part of the Hindu tradition. 

“We know they are involved in the Nijjar killing, in other murders and in ongoing violence — actual violence — in Canada,” a senior Canadian official told The Post. 

According to The Post, “Canadian officials shared details about the references to Shah and other evidence with India’s national security adviser, Ajit Doval, at a secret meeting in Singapore on Saturday (October 12). Canadians who took part in the meeting included Trudeau’s national security adviser, Nathalie Drouin, and Deputy Foreign Minister David Morrison, as well as a top RCMP official.”

On October 14, the RCMP shared their own shocking information about investigations into the Modi government’s involvement in attacks against Canadians and the use of Bishnoi. RCMP Commissioner Michael Duheme, together with Assistant Commissioner Brigitte Gauvin, stated that the “Bishnoi gang” has connections to the Indian government and is involved in criminal acts, including the murder of Sikh activists.

“I won’t be providing any further details in regard to the specificity of those investigations, but what we have seen from an RCMP perspective is the use of organized crime elements,” Gauvin detailed. “And I will say… it’s been publicly attributed and claimed by one organized crime group in particular, which is the Bishnoi group.”

“That’s what we are seeing here in Canada, and we believe that that group is connected to agents of the government of India.”

Brampton resident Inderjeet Singh Gosal, centre, was informed by police in August under an RCMP duty to warn mandate that the Indian government might be targeting him due to his Sikh activism.

(Sikhs for Justice)

Inderjeet Singh Gosal, a Sikh activist who lives in Brampton and took over the Khalistan referendum campaign in Canada after the assassination of Mr. Nijjar, was the subject of an RCMP “duty to warn” notice. He spoke with The Pointer Monday. 

He expressed a mix of trust and concern regarding the protection provided by RCMP and CSIS, Canada’s foreign intelligence agency.

While he acknowledged their efforts, including issuing a duty to warn notice when he was visited at his home by police in August, he pointed out that they couldn’t prevent Nijjar’s murder. Gosal stressed the need for personal safety protocols, alongside law enforcement efforts such as being vigilant, for example, by taking alternative routes during his daily routines.

He questioned why Indian consulates remain open in Canada when it’s widely known they actively work to undermine citizens here, describing them as the operational hub for planning attacks against Sikh activists.

He has already come under gunfire once, he said, when he reached his construction site earlier this year, on February 12.

"I'd gone up to my construction site. I'm a home builder, and there were bullet holes in my windows at my site, and local law enforcement was called right when I saw it; they did confirm it was bullet holes. It was a bullet hole. Forensics was on site, and, yeah, that was in February when that took place."

Mainstream Indian media organizations, Gosal said, are a big part of the problem, mouthing the narratives of the BJP government which controls them.

“There is no democracy. India is not a democracy. That's what we need to understand.”

As for the evidence of its government coordinating assassination plots across North America, and possibly against him, he said, "I'll be honest with you, we don't really fear death." 

He added that, “no one can stop me from campaigning for the Khalistan referendum."

In Canada he is supposed to have the right to do so, without the fear of a government-led criminal reprisal.

“We understand what we signed up for… we are going to rely on the RCMP and the local law enforcement to keep us safe. That’s all we can do.”

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