Indian probe ‘finds’ involvement of rogue officials in plot to kill Gurpatwant Pannun

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, March 20

An investigation by the Union Government has found that rogue officials, not authorised by it, were involved in a foiled plot to kill US-based Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a media report said on Wednesday.

The government has submitted the findings of the investigation to the US authorities, it said. No official confirmation was available to the report by a Western media agency.

It quoted unnamed senior government officials as saying that at least one person who was directly involved in the alleged unauthorised plot was no longer working for India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, suggesting that he might have retired. It further said the government had not yet started any criminal proceedings against the former RAW official. Hours before the US Department of Justice made public its chargesheet in the Pannun case on November 30 last year, the MEA announced that India had already set up a high-level Commission of Inquiry on November 18 and had termed the US charge a “matter of concern”.

Several US officials have since met Indian interlocutors to underscore the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible after the probe.