New Delhi: The United States on Wednesday (April 3) reiterated that it looked forward to learning the results of a “full investigation” by India into the alleged involvement of Indian government agents in the attempt to kill a New York-based Sikh Khalistani activist.
Responding to a question about a Bloomberg report saying India had conveyed to the US that rogue agents were behind the plot, US state department spokesperson Mathew Miller said it was awaiting information from the Indian government.
“So I’m not going to speak to media reports. I will just say that we have made clear to the government of India that we want to see them conduct a full investigation, and we continue to look forward to the results of that investigation, but I don’t have any updates to offer,” he said at the daily media briefing.
India had set up a high-level inquiry after the US had told New Delhi that it had evidence to show that an Indian paramilitary official had directed the hiring of a hitman to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, lawyer of proscribed terror group ‘Sikhs For Justice’.
Shortly after that, US prosecutors unsealed an indictment that said an Indian citizen named Nikhil Gupta hired a hitman to kill Pannun.
The charges also said that Gupta had hired the hitman – who was actually an undercover US law enforcement officer – on directions from an identified but unnamed Indian government official.
Earlier this week, US ambassador to India Eric Garcetti had said that the involvement of a government or government employee in the alleged assassination of a citizen is an “unacceptable red line”.
In an interview to the news agency ANI, Garcetti stated: “I think that’s absolutely critical. For any of us, just abstractly, that has to be a red line. No government or government employee can be involved in the alleged assassination of one of your own citizens. That’s just an unacceptable red line”.
