India has informed the US that an Indian national named in the Justice Department indictment for alleged involvement in a failed plot to kill Khalistani extremist and Canadian-US national Gurpatwant Singh Pannun “is no longer an employee of the Indian government”, a top US official has said.
US State Department spokesperson Mathew Miller, answering questions at the weekly briefing, said when asked about the visit of the Indian Enquiry Committee to the US regarding probe into the Pannun case, said:
“The meeting that occurred yesterday – we updated – “we” being the U.S. Government broadly – updated members of the Committee of Inquiry about the investigation that the United States has been conducting. We’ve received an update from them on the investigation that they have been conducting. It was a productive meeting, and I will leave it at that.”
Asked if the Indian side had informed the US of some of the actions they might have taken, Miller said:
“They did inform us that the individual who was named in the Justice Department indictment is no longer an employee of the Indian Government.”
QUESTION: Are you satisfied with the cooperation of the Indian Government?
MILLER: We are satisfied with the cooperation. We – it continues to be an ongoing process. We continue to work with them on that, but we do appreciate the cooperation, and we appreciate them updating us on their investigation as we update them on ours.
QUESTION: And do you see further meetings with them?
MILLER: I don’t have anything to announce today.”
In April, a Washington Post report had named a RAW officer as allegedly involved in a failed attempt to kill Khalistani separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in the US.
At the time, the Ministry of External Affairs had dismissed as “unwarranted and unsubstantiated imputations” the Washington Post report that named RAW officer Vikram Yadav as allegedly the one involved in the plot to assassinate Pannun on American soil, and that the operation was sanctioned by then spy chief Samant Goel.
The MEA had then said that the Indian government has set up a high-level committee to look into “security concerns shared by the US” and that “speculative and irresponsible comments on it are not helpful”.
The Post report had said that Yadav was a CRPF officer who moved to the RAW.
The report added that the US Justice Department has opted not to bring charges against Yadav for the time being as part of the US’ strategy not to disrupt ties with India.
In November last year, US federal prosecutors charged an Indian national named Nikhil Gupta with
working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Pannun.
Pannun, who is wanted in India on terror charges, holds dual citizenship of the US and Canada. He has been designated as a terrorist by the Union Home Ministry.
