Vikash Yadav was held in Delhi extortion case last year
Vikash Yadav, a former Indian government official, was arrested by Delhi Police in December 2023 in connection with a kidnapping and extortion case. Months later, US authorities charged him in a separate case for allegedly conspiring to assassinate Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil.
According to police sources, Yadav, 39, was arrested on December 18, 2023, for allegedly kidnapping a businessman in Rohini and demanding ransom in the name of jailed gangster Lawrence Bishnoi. Yadav, along with accomplice Abdullah, forced the businessman into a car, threatened him and took Rs 50,000 from the victim’s café. They also deleted CCTV footage to cover their tracks. Yadav was booked under multiple sections of the Indian Penal Code, including kidnapping for ransom and attempt to murder. He was granted bail in April 2024.
Earlier, Yadav was granted six-day interim bail on March 22 on the grounds of “illness” of his one-year-old daughter, with the court referring him as “an ex-government employee having clean antecedents”.
Yadav and Abdullah were booked under sections 364A (kidnapping for ransom), 307 (attempt to murder), 328 (causing harm to another person using poison), 506 (criminal intimidation), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 341 (wrong restraint), 392 (robbery), 411 (dishonestly receiving stolen property) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC.
In a shocking development, US federal prosecutors charged Yadav on October 18, 2024, with murder-for-hire and money laundering for plotting to kill Pannun, a pro-Khalistan separatist. US authorities revealed that Yadav had previously worked for India’s Cabinet Secretariat, which oversees the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), though Indian authorities denied any current ties.
The assassination plot was foiled in June 2023 after another co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, was arrested and extradited from the Czech Republic to the US. Yadav’s involvement in both cases has raised concerns over his actions post-government service, with US and Indian officials closely monitoring the developments.
