Rewari: Vikash Yadav, the former Indian government official named by the United States Department of Justice as a co-conspirator in a plot to murder Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, called his family a day after the US indictment was publicised, the latter have told The Wire Hindi.
When these reporters reached Pranpura in Haryana, Yadav’s family members claimed that Yadav had called them on October 18 – that is, within 24 hours of the indictment issued by the US on October 17.
“He asked us if we had seen what was going on, in the news. When we said that we had, he told us not to worry as he was safe and sound,” a family member told The Wire Hindi.
His family members added that they do not know of Yadav’s whereabouts and that he did not reveal his location during that phone conversation either.
Yadav has been at the centre of the US’s claims which refer to him as the mastermind of the plot to kill Pannun. The US indictment also refers to video and messages sent by Yadav which suggest he was involved in, or knew about, the plot to kill Sikh Canadian separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – a killing which has led to an unprecedented diplomatic tussle between Canada and India. Both Pannun and Nijjar are proscribed as terrorists by India.
According to the documents of the US Department of Justice and another case filed against Vikash Yadav by the Delhi Police, his house is in the Pranpura village in Haryana’s Rewari district.
Yadav, wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the US, has been reported as missing for several months. The Indian government has not yet clarified where Vikash Yadav is.
The claims by his family members of Yadav being in touch with them are thus startling.
The Pranpura village where Vikash Yadav’s family lives. Photo: Shruti Sharma/The Wire Hindi.
Members of Yadav’s family said that Yadav came home for just one night in May this year and that they have not seen him since then. However, they stressed that he has been in regular contact with the family over the phone. Villagers also said that they came to know about the recent episode through news reports.
The Indian government has officially denied that Yadav is a government employee. A Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said on October 17 that he was not part of the Indian government. However, when he stopped being a government employee is unclear. According to the US indictment, Yadav had been working for RAW as a senior field officer on probation for a long time. As The Wire reported, he fought a case in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) for a year, after which he was made permanent on October 9, 2023 – three weeks after the first US indictment.
Yadav is now the talk of his village, although not everyone is clear on what he has done.
The question, “Do you know Vikash Yadav?” gets this response from a neighbourhood child: “Yes, he has done something in America.”
The US indictment has it that Yadav used to work for India’s intelligence agency RAW. His family says that as far as they know, he is a government employee and works as an officer in the CRPF. His brother Ajay Yadav says, “Till now, we know that he is in the CRPF. We don’t even know about RAW, or when he joined it and how it all transpired.”
The family also does not know if Yadav has undertaken any trips abroad.
His family members say that Yadav used to talk very little about his professional life. According to the family, Yadav’s last posting was in Delhi.
Yadav’s last official address was a government complex in Andrews Ganj Extension in Delhi. The Wire’s report on October 19 quotes neighbours as having said that Yadav was last seen at this address in December 2023. He lived at this address with his wife for about three years but had had little interaction with neighbours who had no information about his work except that he was a ‘government employee’.
The apartment complex in which Yadav allegedly lived. Photo: Devirupa Mitra/The Wire.
Family unaware of kidnapping case
According to a report in the Indian Express, quoting the Delhi Police, three weeks after the US filed the first indictment last November, the Delhi Police arrested Vikash Yadav on December 18, 2023 on charges of kidnapping and extortion. He was jailed in Tihar for about four months. The court granted him interim bail on March 22, 2024 when his daughter fell ill. He got regular bail on April 22.
His family in Haryana says that they have no information about any of this. They claim to have come to know about the case from the news recently.
The family also claimed that they never lost touch with Yadav for a long enough duration for them to have realised that he may be in jail. During the time when Yadav is said to have been in jail, he was, according to his family, still in regular contact with them and did not mention anything about his jail term or this case.
Regarding the Delhi Police’s case, Avinash, the son of Yadav’s maternal uncle, says, “Maybe the government did it to protect my brother.”
The case filed by the Delhi Police is likely to put any US request for Yadav’s extradition on hold until a final decision is taken on the matter – a process that may take years.
Also read: ‘Do It Quickly’: The Timeline of the Alleged Plot to Murder Gurpatwant Singh Pannun
Excelled in studies, became a national level shooter and trained as a para-commando
Vikash Yadav’s grandfather was a farmer and had three sons. The eldest was Vikash’s father, Ram Singh Yadav. According to his uncle, Yashwant Yadav, Ram Singh had joined the BSF as a soldier (through the sports quota) and reached the post of deputy superintendent of police. He died of a heart attack on duty in Tripura in 2007.
Due to his father’s posting in different parts of the country (Shillong, Jammu, Jharkhand, Tripura and so on), Yadav and his brother Ajay had to keep changing schools. This continued till Yadav reached Class 10. The brothers did their Class 11 and 12 studies from the Kendriya Vidyalaya at Rewari.
For higher studies, both the brothers went to Ahir College in Rewari, where Yadav got a Bachelor of Science degree and his brother Ajay, a Bachelor of Arts.
The ‘Gaurav Patt’ installed in the village tells the story of a fighter of the Azad Hind Fauj. Photo: Shruti Sharma/The Wire Hindi
All of his family members stress that Yadav was brilliant in studies since childhood, that he excelled in sports in college and was also a national-level shooter. Ajay has been in the Haryana Police since 2008 and is posted in Gurgaon.
Yadav appeared for National Defence Academy (NDA) exam before joining the CRPF as Assistant Commandant in 2009 when he was 22 years old. After completing his training from the Kadarpur CRPF Camp at Rewari, his first posting was in Raigarh, Chhattisgarh. According to the family, after training he got the Best Cadet award, which was handed to him by the then chief minister of the state, Bhupendra Singh Hooda.
His family said Yadav has also undergone training as a para-commando.
Ajay says that it was not particularly Yadav’s dream to join the CRPF or the army. “For employment in Haryana, we apply for all sorts of jobs, and join whichever job we are offered,” he adds.
Yadav’s family appears to be prosperous. The walls of his large house are painted pink. Agricultural machinery is kept in the veranda of the house. There is a pet dog at the door, which Yadav had brought home, his family says. His neighbours in Delhi had told The Wire that Yadav had some cats.
According to his family, Yadav had an inter-caste marriage with Ekta, a resident of Rajasthan, in 2015. It is not clear where the two met but his uncle Yashwant says that Yadav met Ekta through one of his friends.
While Yadav’s neighbours in Andrews Ganj Extension had told The Wire that Yadav’s wife had been a flight attendant, his family members at Pranpura say that she is a housewife. However, she rarely visited the Pranpura house, they add.
Yadav does not appear to have made lasting connections in his village. Most villagers say they last saw him one and a half years ago in a function held soon after the birth of his daughter.
Ex-serviceman Sampat Lal, who lives in the street opposite to Yadav’s house, said that he had last seen him many years ago. “He is a very decent boy who studied hard to become an officer,” he says.
Translated from the Hindi original, published first on The Wire Hindi, by Naushin Rehman.
