New Delhi: The United States emphasised the need for an Indian high-level panel to “quickly and transparently” investigate allegations that agents of the Indian government orchestrated an assassination attempt on a Sikh US citizen, ensuring that justice is served.
In November, US prosecutors alleged that an Indian citizen named Nikhil Gupta tried to hire a hitman to kill a man who is believed to be Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on US soil at the behest of an Indian government official.
Gupta is currently facing extradition to the US after being arrested in the Czech Republic.
Pannun has dual citizenship of the US and Canada and works as a lawyer for a group banned in India named ‘Sikhs for Justice’. The Union home affairs ministry has declared Pannun a terrorist.
At a public hearing on Wednesday (March 20) of the US congressional committee on foreign affairs on the Pakistan elections, Democrat congressman from Minnesota Dean Phillips quizzed a senior state department official about the accusation made by US prosecutors, asking if the department has considered placing sanctions on Indian officials.
“The administration of course recently placed sanctions on more than 500 individuals relating to the killing of Alexei Navalny in Russia on Russian soil. So my question is, are any similar sanctions on or travel bans being considered for those who we believe may be responsible for the attempted murder of Mr Pannun?”, asked Phillips.
The US assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, Donald Lu, stated that the Biden administration took the allegations “incredibly seriously and have raised it at the highest levels with India”.
“We are at the moment working with India to encourage India to hold accountable those responsible for this this terrible crime,” Lu asserted.
Noting that India has announced a committee of inquiry, Lu declared, “We ask them to work quickly and transparently to make sure justice is done”.
Lu didn’t indicate with his remarks that India had conveyed any findings from the committee’s investigation.
In the November indictment, US prosecutors named the Indian official accused of recruiting Gupta only as ‘CC-1’ but said his identity is known to the US government.
The official is also said to have described himself as a “senior field officer” with responsibilities in “security management” and “intelligence”.
The indictment says the alleged murder plot was thwarted by US law enforcement officials.
Earlier in the day, Bloomberg reported citing unnamed senior officials that India had told the US that “rogue” operatives not authorised by the government were behind the alleged plot.
The news agency claimed that that one of the people directly involved in the plot is no longer working for India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing; that he is still a government employee; and that the government has not initiated criminal action against him.
“New Delhi has informed US authorities about the findings from the government-appointed panel set up to probe the allegations, the people said,” Bloomberg stated.
India is yet to publicly announce that its probe into the alleged plot is complete, or even offer any information on what progress it has made.
When contacted by The Wire after the Bloomberg report was published, the US embassy in India said it had nothing to share now. The external affairs ministry did not yet respond to a request for comment.
The US state department has previously said it looked forward to seeing the result of India’s inquiry into the allegations, though the US government has not shared any details about the investigation either.
US prosecutors had also linked the alleged murder plot to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada last year in their indictment.
Nijjar was gunned to death outside a gurdwara near Vancouver. He too was designated a terrorist by the Indian government.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau alleged in public last year that his government had “credible reasons” to believe that Indian government agents were involved in Nijjar’s killing.
The allegations triggered a diplomatic row between the two countries, which led to the withdrawal of over 40 Canadian diplomats and restrictions on Indian visas for Canadian nationals.
The Indian government has asserted it is not cooperating with Canada in the investigation into Nijjar’s death.
Indian ambassador to Canada Sanjay Kumar Verma said “it would be extremely difficult” for India to help unless Canadian authorities shared “relevant and specific evidence” with their Indian counterparts.
This article was republished with new information at 12:55 am on March 21.
