Ex-Indian government agent plotted assassination on U.S. soil, DOJ says
The Justice Department has accused an Indian government employee of directing the assassination attempt of a Sikh separatist leader in New York City.
NEW DELHI — A former employee of the Indian government has been indicted in the U.S. on charges of directing the assassination attempt of a Sikh separatist leader in New York City.
The Justice Department, in an 18-page indictment Thursday, charged Vikash Yadav, 39, with three counts of murder-for-hire and money laundering. Federal prosecutors said Yadav was a “senior field officer” for New Delhi.
Yadav, they say, orchestrated the plot from India and hired Nikhil Gupta, another Indian national who is himself accused of trying to hire a hit man. Their New York target was an attorney and political activist who is a U.S. citizen of Indian origin, prosecutors said.
Gupta was arrested last year in connection with the plot by authorities in the Czech Republic and extradited to the U.S.
Yadav “allegedly conspired with a criminal associate and attempted to assassinate a U.S. citizen on American soil for exercising their First Amendment rights,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a news release Thursday.
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