The FBI wants Vikash Yadav. But how did a Haryana native become a person of interest for the American agency?
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00:00Wanted by the FBI reads a poster looking for Indian national Vikash Yadav.
00:05The United States Department of Justice indicted Haryana native Vikash for masterminding a
00:10plot to kill pro-Khalistan activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannu, who is a dual US-Canada citizen.
00:17While Vikash was absconding, his family members said he denied the allegations and called
00:22media reports false.
00:23Vikash is a native of Pranpura village in Haryana and lived in a government colony in
00:29South Delhi.
00:30His relatives told the Indian Express that he visited home when his daughter was born
00:34last year and since then he hadn't been in contact with them.
00:39His brother, who serves in the Haryana Police, said he was in the CRPF and posted in various
00:44locations.
00:45The Department of Justice press release called Vikash an Indian government employee.
00:50India's Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said this without naming
00:56Vikash Yadav.
01:00The Justice Department said Yadav was employed by the Government of India's Cabinet Secretariat,
01:05which houses India's foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing.
01:10But his family said they had no information about him working as an intelligence officer.
01:14For his mother, Vikash has been working for the country.
01:18She said, I do not know whether the US government is telling the truth or not.
01:23His cousin Amit Yadav told Reuters that as a boy, he was interested in books and athletics
01:28and he was also a national-level marksman.
01:31The US Justice Department said Vikash used his position of authority and access to confidential
01:36information to direct the attempted assassination of an outspoken critic of the Indian government
01:42here on US soil.
01:43They alleged that he hired another Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, around May 2023 to
01:48kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannu.
01:50The department said Vikash orchestrated the plot from India and Nikhil acted as the middleman
01:55who put Vikash in touch with a hitman and passed information about the plan from Vikash
02:00to the hitman.
02:01Vikash allegedly offered to pay $1 lakh for the hit job.
02:05By June 2023, he had delivered an advance cash payment of $15,000 to the hitman in New
02:11York, according to the Department of Justice.
02:14The press release further said that he provided Nikhil with personal information about Pannu,
02:19such as his residential address and phone number, which Nikhil then passed on to the hitman.
02:24But this hitman turned out to be an undercover agent of the US Drug Enforcement Administration
02:30and that's how the murder plot was uncovered.
02:32While India was investigating the allegations, the US expected Vikash to be extradited.
02:38Nikhil Gupta is already in custody there.
02:41Both of them were charged with murder for hire, which draws a maximum 10-year imprisonment,
02:46conspiracy to commit murder for hire, which again is punishable by a maximum 10-year jail term,
02:52and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which gets a convict a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
03:17In an unrelated case, the Delhi Police Special Cell had arrested Vikash in a kidnapping and extortion case in December 2023.
03:25This was based on a complaint by a Delhi-based businessman who alleged that Vikash pushed him in a car and demanded money in the name of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
03:35Vikash was released on bail in April 2024.