New Delhi: Former intelligence officer Vikash Yadav, charged by the US in the ‘murder-for-hire plot’ against India-designated terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York, secured confirmation of his job at the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) only last year, after filing litigation with the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), documents obtained by ThePrint have revealed. The litigation shows Yadav had worked for 9 years for R&AW as a senior field officer (SFO), but only on probation.
According to the documents, top officials at the Cabinet Secretariat, which exercises administrative control of R&AW, only withdrew its objections to Yadav’s permanent appointment as SFO on 9 October, 2023. Following this, Yadav was appointed as a permanent SFO in R&AW’s sister image-intelligence gathering agency, the Aviation Research Centre.
The decision to enable Yadav’s appointment came two months after United States National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Central Intelligence Agency chief William Burns discussed the Pannun plot with India’s National Security Adviser, Ajit Doval.
There will be much curiosity about these timelines and clarity may only emerge in the course of time.
There’s also little clarity on how a relatively junior officer came to be involved in an operation of high sensitivity, allegedly involving an assassination attempt in a major Western democracy. There has been no explanation, either, of who authorised an $15,000 cash payment made by Yadav to the hit-man—who was in fact an undercover operative working for the United States Drug Enforcement Administration—and whether he was acting on official instructions.
The FBI has put Yadav on its “most wanted” list in connection with the Pannun case. A US federal warrant of arrest was issued against him on 10 October. You can read more details of his arrest here.
ThePrint reached Yadav’s lawyer Asish Nischal via calls, but he refused to say anything on the record.
According to CAT filings and a lawyer in the know of the case, the 39-year old, on 5 December, 2022, filed a plea before its principal branch, over not receiving the order confirming his job at R&AW. Yadav’s plea was filed against his topmost boss, the R&AW chief, or secretary (R) of the Cabinet Secretariat as the position is described, as well as the special secretary (SR) or additional secretary at the Cabinet Secretariat, and the special secretary (ARC) of the Cabinet Secretariat’s Aviation Research Centre, Directorate General of Security. Promptly, the CAT sent a notice to the government authorities on 8 December, 2022.
In four subsequent hearings before the CAT’s principal bench—in January 2023, April 2023, July 2023 and September 2023—the court gave multiple opportunities to the government authorities to file a response in the matter. The government finally filed a response on 26 September, 2023. During the months between the CAT’s notices to R&AW leaders in April and July, Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s assassination took place, and the plot against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, in which Yadav is implicated, was also foiled.
According to a CAT order accessed by ThePrint, the deputy secretary (personnel division) of the Aviation Research Centre came out with an office order confirming Yadav’s job on 9 October, 2023. The order conveyed the Indian government’s approval for the successful completion of Vikash Yadav’s probation and confirmed his position as senior field officer (GD) in the executive cadre of the Directorate General of Security, with effect from 13 November, 2015, or back-dated by 9 years.
The CAT order indicates that it was around 2015 that Vikash Yadav completed his probation with the Cabinet Secretariat. However, he had to wait 9 years for the arrival of his job confirmation order. After the October 2023 order addressed Yadav’s grievances, his application before the CAT’s principal bench became infructuous.
India has informed the US that Vikash Yadav has since been dismissed from government service.
ThePrint earlier reported that after the US authorities flagged his name and action, the R&AW suspended Yadav. He was sent back to his parent CAPF organisation in 2023 after an internal probe into violations of an internal order. But later, the CAPF also dismissed him.
In December 2023, the Special Cell of Delhi Police arrested Yadav on charges of attempted murder, extortion, and violations of the Arms Act, following an FIR filed by a local businessman who claimed to be his victim. The police allege that Yadav has links to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang. He was released on bail in April this year after spending nearly four months in Tihar Jail.
According to the charge-sheet filed by the Delhi Police, Yadav and an associate, Abdullah Khan extorted cash and jewellery from the businessman at gunpoint.
Legal sources have told ThePrint that Yadav cannot be extradited to the US if there are criminal proceedings pending against him in India.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: US charges ‘CC-1’ Vikash Yadav for orchestrating Pannun murder plot. A timeline