Vikash Yadav, Charged By US For Plotting to kill Sikh separatist, Was Arrested By Delhi Cops: Report
By : DC Web Desk
Update: 2024-10-19 08:00 GMT
The FBI issued a wanted poster of Vikash Yadav, a former Indian official, in connection with his alleged involvement in directing a failed plot to assassinate a pro-khalistani leader Gurpatwat Singh Pannun in the US.
The Department of Justice on Friday named and charged Vikash Yadav with "murder-of-hire" and money laundering, in the claimed murder plot of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
The Ministry of External Affairs confirmed on Thursday that the person named in the US Justice Department's indictment case in the failed assassination attempt on Gurpatwant Singh Pannun is no longer an employee of the Indian government.
A report by a leading English daily on Saturday revealed that Vikash Yadav was arrested by the Delhi Police's Special Cell in an extortion case.
The arrest took place less than three weeks after Yadav was identified as the CC-1” (co-conspirator) in the US Department of Justice Documents, last November.
The reports added that Vikash Yadav was released on bail, this year in April.
Yadav was arrested after a Rohini resident filed an FIR accusing him of extortion and kidnapping and alleging his connection to gangster Lawrence Bishnoi.
The Rohini resident further stated in the report that he used to run an IT company and had connections with many Indians who lived in West Asia.
The report quoted the complainant as saying, “In November last year, one of my friends introduced me to Yadav as a senior government official and we exchanged numbers. We became good friends, but never spoke about business since he was a government official. However, he had always shown curiosity about my friends, who are based abroad, and also enquired about how I do money transactions with them.”
A senior police officer told the English daily who cited the charge sheet, “In his disclosure, Yadav told the police that his father was working with the Border Security Force, and he died in 2007. Yadav got married in 2015. He met (the complainant) at a social gathering and decided to make money after kidnapping him. His associate, who works as a car dealer, told the police that he was facing financial losses in his business and decided to join his (Yadav’s) plan.”
The complainant informed the newspaper on Friday that he had gone to the police on December 17 of last year after being kidnapped by Vikash Yadav and his accomplice.