U.S. media names RAW o€cer who allegedly ordered the hit on Khalistani activist Pannun
U.S. authorities believe the alleged plot to kill Khalistani activist, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, who is wanted on terror charges in India, was ordered by the previous chief of the Indian Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), and had o cial sanction from senior intelligence o cials “with ties to [Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s inner circle”, the Washington Post reported.
Escalating campaign
The report identi ed, for the rst time, an RAW o cer whose name had been withheld in the case papers made available by the Justice Department in New York in November 2023.
In a separate press release, the Post said, on the basis of interviews with
“more than three dozen current and former senior o cials in the United States, India, Canada, Britain, Germany and Australia”, that other RAW o cers have faced “arrest, expulsion and reprimand” in recent months, indicating that there was more international coordination about what it called “escalating campaign of aggression” against Indian diaspora members by India’s intelligence operatives.
The Ministry of External Aairs declined to comment on the Post report on Monday. Last week, in response to a question on the allegations, the MEA spokesperson said a “high-level committee is looking into information that was shared by the American side with us, because [it] also equally impacts our national security.
“In reports that have been closely held within the American government, U.S. intelligence o cials have assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel,” said the report. “U.S. spy agencies have more tentatively assessed that Mr. Modi’s National Security
Adviser, Ajit Doval, was probably aware of RAW’s plans to kill Sikh activists,” it added.
‘Not our policy’
According to the story, the RAW o cial identi ed as Vikram Yadav had directed Indian businessman Nikhil Gupta, now in custody in the Czech Republic pending extradition to the U.S. to stand trial in the case, to hire a hitman to kill Pannun outside his New York residence. Mr. Yadav, believed to be a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) o cial on deputation to the RAW, has subsequently been repatriated to the paramilitary forces, other U.S. media have reported.
While the MEA has maintained that such killings are not Indian policy, and has denied Canadian allegations of a similar hit on Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada, the government has agreed to an enquiry on the U.S. allegations.
The Post story also dwells at length on dierences between the White House and the Justice Department that oversaw the FBI-DEA investigation in the case.