Modi’s spies plotted to assassinate dissident
As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was enjoying the pomp and circumstance of a White House state visit last year his spy chiefs were plotting to assassinate a leading dissident on American soil, according to U.S. and Indian security officials.
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill laid on all the trimmings, with lotus blooms, the symbol of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, decorating the south lawn, and a vegetarian chef flown in from California for the June 22 event.
Meanwhile, Modi’s spy service was finalizing the hit, according to an explosive report in the Washington Post.
The assassination is a ‘priority now,’ wrote Vikram Yadav, an officer in India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) spy agency.
The idea that a friendly nation would order a killing on American territory, potentially triggering a diplomatic freeze, stunned Western officials when details emerged.
‘Because they knew they could get away with it,’ a Western official told the newspaper.
Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S. citizen, was the target of the plot, which was eventually foiled.
But in June 2022, Yardav forwarded his details, including his address in New York, to a hired hit team.
As soon as the would-be killers could confirm that Pannun was home, he said, it will be a go ahead from us.’
Details the plot have already been set out in an indictment, but Yardav’s identity and affiliation have not previously been reported and confirm for the first time that the plan was directed by India’s spy agency.
Current and former Western intelligence officers say high-level officers are implicated and that the target was approved by was approved by the RAW chief at the time, Samant Goel.
Neither Doval nor Goel reportedly responded to requests for comment.
The latest revelations are in line with an increasingly aggressive posture adopted by India.
Last year Canada said there were ‘credible’ allegations linking Indian agents to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader there.
Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead by two masked assailants in the parking lot of a Sikh temple near Vancouver in June, 2023.
He was wanted by Indian authorities for alleged terrorism and conspiracy to commit murder after he advocated for a separate Sikh state carved out of India. The Indian government has rejected any suggestion that it was involved.
Both plots emerged during a wave of killings in Pakistan. At least 11 Sikh or Kashmiri separatists, condemned as terrorists by Modi’s government, have been killed in the past two years.
And officials say RAW has ramped up surveillance and harassment of overseas critics.
The result is a diplomatic conundrum for the Biden administration, which has been cultivating deeper ties with India.
The report said the White House last July began examining ways to respond without risking a deeper diplomatic rift. CIA chief Bill Burns is among those sent to New Delhi to demand answers.
The plot against Pannun was disrupted when an Indian man recruited to orchestrate the killing approached a hitman, who turned out to be a DEA informant, according to court filings.
Nikhil Gupta, who is described in the indictment as an Indian drug and weapons trafficker was arrested in Prague on June 30 and remains in prison. He denies the charges and is awaiting a ruling on his extradition. (Courtesy Daily Mail)
