Ganesh Kendale
Former RAW agent Vikas Yadav was arrested by Delhi Police in December last year for an unrelated extortion and kidnapping case, weeks after the US authorities named him a key conspirator in the foiled bid to assassinate Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, according to police sources, as reported by PTI.
The 39-year-old was arrested by the special cell of Delhi Police on December 18, 2023, for allegedly kidnapping a businessman in Rohini and extorting money on behalf of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
He was granted regular bail in April this year, only a month after he had been interim bail for medical reasons regarding his daughter. The bail order referred Yadav as “an ex-government employee having clean antecedents.”
The US on Thursday charged Yadav in an alleged plot to assassinate Pannun on American soil. The US Justice Department revealed that he was not in custody but faced charges of conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and money laundering. He had been identified as “CC-1” (co-conspirator) in first indictment.
The MEA responded to this saying that Yadav was “no longer an employee of the Government of India.”
The assassination attempt on Pannun was thwarted in June of last year after the arrest of another co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta. Gupta is currently incarcerated in a US prison following his extradition from the Czech Republic.
