Indian government official charged in alleged plot to kill NYC resident and separatist leader

An Indian government official faces murder-for-hire and other charges for alleged involvement in a scheme to assassinate a Sikh separatist leader and New York City resident, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday.

The charges against Vikash Yadav, 39, come after federal prosecutors filed similar charges last year against an international narcotics trafficker also allegedly involved in the scheme. Both Yadav and Nikhil Gupta, 52, were allegedly involved in a $100,000 plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a prominent activist involved in the local organization Sikhs for Justice.

“Let this case be a warning to all those who would seek to harm and silence U.S. citizens: We will hold you accountable, no matter who and where you are,” Damian Williams, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

Pannun has called for Punjab, a state in northern Indian and home to a large concentration of ethnic minority Sikhs, to secede from the rest of India. Both Pannun, and his organization, have been banned from India.

Yadav allegedly orchestrated the plot from India and recruited Gupta to hire a hitman to commit the murder. However, the two unknowingly began interacting with both a source for the Drug Enforcement Agency and an undercover DEA officer posing as a hitman, according to prosecutors.

Both Yadav and Gupta are facing charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering, which could result in decades of prison time.

Yadav is employed by the Government of India’s Cabinet Secretariat, and still remains at large, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“The United States government was able to disrupt this abhorrent plot to silence an American before it could be carried out,” FBI Assistant Director James E. Dennehy said. “Today’s charges make clear the FBI, in conjunction with our DEA and SDNY partners, will not tolerate a foreign government attempting to violate our laws and our sovereignty here in New York or anywhere.”

There was no immediate comment from the Indian government's consulate.