U.S. charges Indian government employee in foiled murder-for-hire plot
Global News
The charges come days after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and police officials went public with allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in Canada.
The U.S. Justice Department announced criminal charges against an Indian government employee Thursday in connection with a foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.
Vikash Yadav remains at large but faces murder-for-hire charges in federal court.
The criminal case was announced the same week as two members of an Indian inquiry committee investigating the plot were in Washington to meet with U.S. officials about the investigation.
“The Justice Department will be relentless in holding accountable any person — regardless of their position or proximity to power — who seeks to harm and silence American citizens,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement announcing the charges.
The charges come days after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and police officials went public with allegations that Indian diplomats were targeting Sikh separatists in Canada by sharing information about them with their government back home. They said top Indian officials were then passing that information along to Indian organized crime groups who were targeting the activists, who are Canadian citizens, with drive-by shootings, extortions and even murder.
The two sides ordered the expulsion of top diplomats this week in the deepening crisis over the accusations, including Canada’s allegation that the diplomats were linked to the June 2023 killing of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
The New York murder-for-hire plot was first disclosed by federal prosecutors last year when they announced charges against a man, Nikhil Gupta, who was recruited by a then-unidentified Indian government employee to orchestrate the assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in New York.
Gupta was extradited to the United States in June from the Czech Republic after his arrest in Prague last year.
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