Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Khalistani activist, was the target of an assassination conspiracy, according to an indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice; the MEA said a high-level investigative panel will look into the matter.
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said here on Wednesday that India has established a “high level” enquiry committee to investigate claims made by the US government alleging an Indian conspiracy that was intended to target Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Khalistani activist based in the US who is wanted on terror charges.
The shocking claims, which are included in an indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice that was made public on Wednesday, place the blame for the assassination plot’s mastermind at the senior level on an unidentified Indian intelligence official known only as CC-1. The indictment suggests that the Gujarat Police dropped criminal charges against Mr. Gupta at the request of the Indian intelligence official in order to facilitate the contract killing. It also alleges that the official recruited a person named Nikhil Gupta to hire a hit man with an advance payment.
Additionally, it asserts a connection between the purported plot against Mr. Pannun and the murderous scheme of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, of which Canada has charged with being orchestrated by Indian government operatives.
Khalistani is indicted by the US Attorney
U.S. Attorney Damien Williams stated in a press release issued by the office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, “The defendant [Nikhil Gupta] conspired from India to assassinate, right here in New York City, a U.S. citizen of Indian origin who has publicly advocated for the establishment of a sovereign state for Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India.” Mr. Williams continued, “We stand ready to investigate, thwart, and prosecute anyone who seeks to harm and silence Americans here or abroad. We will not tolerate efforts to assassinate U.S. citizens on U.S. soil.”
According to the announcement, Nikhil Gupta was detained in the Czech Republic on June 30 and is currently awaiting extradition proceedings to the United States.
Raised to the greatest standards
The indictment was mentioned in an article published in the American newspaper The Washington Post on Wednesday. The article stated that between June and October of this year, the President, Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States all brought up the allegations at the highest levels.
The allegations made by the Canadian government regarding the death of Khalistani activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was based in Canada, were preceded by reports from the United States, according to the Financial Times of the United Kingdom. India had previously refuted and described the claims as “absurd.” Officials indicated that the government was aware of the details in the U.S. indictment, but they did not specify if this meant that India would also have to reexamine the Nijjar case.
The high-level inquiry committee was established, according to the MEA, on November 18, this year—four days before the Financial Times of the United Kingdom broke its story claiming that the United States had “warned” India about “concerns” that the government “was involved in the plot.”
Investigate “nexus”
The MEA stated that the United States had provided “inputs” on a “nexus between organised criminals, gun runners, terrorists, and others,” which the government is looking into, but it did not expressly address the claims that government agents were engaged. A query regarding the identity of the “other” elements was not answered by MEA representatives.
In the answer made public on Wednesday, MEA spokeswoman Arindam Bagchi stated, “India takes such inputs seriously since they impinge on our national security interests as well, and relevant departments were already examining the issue.” Without naming the organisation or individuals in charge of the “high-level enquiry,” it said, “Government of India will take necessary follow-up action based on the findings of the Enquiry Committee.”
Involved senior field officer
The unidentified Indian official was a “Senior Field Officer” with duties in “Security Management” and “Intelligence,” according to the indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The official had corresponded with Mr. Gupta beginning in May 2023, requesting his assistance in organising Mr. Pannun’s assassination.
The indictment states that “CC-1 resides in India, was employed by the Indian government at all relevant times, and directed the assassination plot from India.” It includes in-depth details of the phone conversations between “CC-1” and “Gupta,” including hiring a hitman on the condition of paying up to $150,000 in total for the murder and exchanging information on Mr. Pannun’s apartment and whereabouts.
According to the correspondence cited, Mr. Gupta was instructed to “calm everything” for approximately ten days in June, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was scheduled to visit Washington for a State visit, but other than that, he was told to schedule the “execution” as soon as feasible.
Furthermore, it is evident from the indictment that the Indian official was directly involved in the June 17 murder of Nijjar in Canada. The official provided Mr. Gupta a video of the shooting and stated that Nijjar was one of the “many targets” for Indian covert operations.
Referenda for separatists
The creator of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), Mr. Pannun, is wanted in India for promoting a separatist “Sikh referendum” across multiple nations. The last threat he made was against Air India flights. The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act of 2020 designated Mr. Pannun as a terrorist in India; however, the MEA did not clarify if it had requested his extradition to India.
Mr. Pannun described the claims of an assassination plan as a “challenge to American sovereignty” in response to questions about them from the American magazine Time. He declared that he thought he was being targeted for murder by “the Indian government and the Modi regime” because he was “running the global Khalistan referendum voting campaign.” The date of the next such “referendum” is January 26, 2024.
Contrasting responses
In sharp contrast to the Canadian government’s allegations regarding Nijjar, which resulted in the expulsion of two-thirds of the Canadian High Commission in India, the Indian government responded to the accusations made by the US government about Mr. Pannun by forming a high-level inquiry committee.
India’s High Commissioner in Ottawa claims that the differences in the way the allegations were made—Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made the announcement in Parliament, while the U.S. leadership expressed its concerns in a more subdued manner—accounted for India’s different responses. High Commissioner Sanjay Kumar Verma also stated that the Canadian inputs had “no specific or relevant information for [India] to look into,” whereas the American inputs were “legally presentable” in an interview with Canadian TV this week.
