NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India said on Wednesday that a panel set up to investigate Washington’s accusations of Indian involvement in a foiled murder plot on U.S. soil against a prominent activist had recommended legal action against an unnamed person.
The U.S. has been pushing India to look into the Justice Department’s claim that an unnamed Indian intelligence official directed plans to assassinate dual Canadian-American citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a prominent Sikh separatist in 2023.
The home (interior) ministry said on Wednesday that the committee had looked into activities of “some organised criminal groups, terrorist organisations, drug peddlers, etc., who undermined the security interests of both India and the U.S.”.
India has said little publicly since announcing in November 2023 it would formally investigate the claims, and has separately continued a diplomatic dispute with Canada over the June 2023 assassination of another Sikh leader.
The committee has “recommended legal action against an individual, whose earlier criminal links and antecedents also came to notice during the enquiry,” the ministry said in a statement.
The statement did not elaborate further on the identity of the person, but said the committee also asked for legal action to “be completed expeditiously”.
The U.S. welcomes “this constructive first step and looks forward to seeing legal action taken in the Indian system,” White House National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett said.
The U.S. Department of Justice had charged Vikash Yadav, an ex-Indian intelligence official, with leading the 2023 plot to murder Pannun. The U.S. indictment was unsealed in October.
A lawyer representing Yadav declined to comment on the report.
(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta, additional reporting by Shivam Patel and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington; Editing by Ros Russell)
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