US report names RAW man involved in alleged plot to take out Pannun | India News

A report in Washington Post, a US newspaper, has claimed that a Research and Analysis Wing officer, Vikram Yadav, instructed a hired hit team to kill US-based Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
According to the report, “US intelligence agencies have assessed that the operation targeting Pannun was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel.” It adds that Yadav was transferred back to CRPF after the Pannun plot unravelled last year.
There was no response by the Indian govt to the assertions made in the report till late Monday night.
US authorities had last year indicted an Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, for the plot, alleging that he was acting at the behest of an Indian official they referred to in the indictment as CC-1.

Gupta is currently in a jail in Prague, where he was detained last year by Czech and US agencies. While India had formed a high-level committee in Nov to probe the information shared by the US about the role of the Indian official, saying it had a bearing on India’s security too, the govt has so far not revealed any of its findings.
US Pannun plot probe involves CIA, FBI, others
RAW officer Vikram Yadav, who was on deputation from CRPF, allegedly forwarded details of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, including his address in New York, said a Washington Post report, citing sources and a US indictment. The official is now back with the central paramilitary force.
Given his background, Yadav “lacked training and skills” needed for an operation that meant going up against sophisticated US counter-intelligence capabilities, the Post said. According to the report, senior officials at the US justice department and FBI had pushed to prosecute Yadav, a step that would have implicated RAW in a murder-for-hire conspiracy. “But while a US indictment unsealed in November contained the bombshell allegation that the plot was directed by an Indian official, it referred to Yadav as only an unnamed co-conspirator, CC-1, and made no mention of the Indian spy agency,” it said.
“Higher-ranking RAW officials have also been implicated, according to current and former Western security officials, as part of a sprawling investigation by the CIA, FBI and other agencies that has mapped potential links to Modi’s inner circle,” the report said.