The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Vikash Yadav, the former government official named by the US Department of Justice as the mastermind behind the plot to kill pro-Khalistan activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, was arrested by Delhi Police within three weeks of being alluded to in the first US indictment in November 2023, the Delhi police is quoted by Indian Express as claiming.
Yadav was arrested on attempt to murder and extortion charges, spent four months in Tihar jail and was released on bail in April 2024, the newspaper has reported.
While the November 29, 2023 indictment had not named Yadav – referring to him instead as ‘CC1’ – the second and superseding indictment released on October 17, 2024, revealed his identity as a officer who was employed by the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) of the Cabinet Secretariat at the time. The Ministry of External affairs has claimed that Yadav, who was seconded to RAW from the Contral Reserve Police Force, is “no longer” a government official though no date has been provided in the public domain for when he resigned or was terminated.
Yadav, charged by the US with murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and money laundering is wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
FBI poster for Vikash Yadav
On December 18, 2023, the Delhi Police Special Cell arrested Yadav after an FIR was filed against him by a Rohini resident, accusing him of extortion and kidnapping and linking him to gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, the Indian Express report notes.
The filing of this Delhi Police case implies that any US extradition request for Vikash Yadav would likely be put on hold pending the final outcome of this case, including disposal of all appeals – a process which could take years.
The complaint by the Rohini resident alleges that Yadav ran an IT company and had told the Rohini resident that he was “some kind of undercover agent” executing a sensitive operation for a Central agency. The complainant alleges that Yadav forcibly took him to a flat, where one of his accomplices injured him and forced him to give him his gold chain, some rings and cash from a cafe he ran. The complainant also said that he was warned of dire consequences if he divulged this information.
In the second Department of Justice indictment, there are allegations that Yadav made references to a “boss” during his conversations with Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta, who is in US custody.
While the Delhi Police complaint against Yadav alleges connections between him and gangster Lawrence Bishnoi, the Canadian national police has accused the Indian government of outsourcing the targeting of Sikhs in Canada to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. Bishnoi is currently being held in jail in Gujarat but is reportedly running his operations from there. The US indictment, too, has allegation of Yadav and Gupta conversing on the killing of Khalistan activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada.
A Washington Post report has it that Canadian officials have told the Indian government that “conversations and texts among Indian diplomats” who were ordered out of Canada on October 14, “include references” to Union home minister Amit Shah and a senior official in the Research and Analysis Wing in India “who have authorised… intelligence-gathering missions and attacks on Sikh separatists,” in Canada.
The Delhi Police is under the direct control of Shah.
Lawyers familiar with the functioning of the criminal law enforcement system in India have expressed scepticism about the case on which Yadav has been arrested.