Just after the U.S. Department of Justice publicly released an indictment alleging an Indian plot targeting Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a U.S.-based Khalistani activist wanted on terror charges, India set up a “high-level” enquiry committee to look into the allegations.
Calling the allegations a “matter of concern”, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said that the purported links between the indicted individual and the Indian government official in the U.S. Department of Justice filings are not the “Indian government policy”.
The indictment accused a senior Indian intelligence official of masterminding the plot to assassinate Pannun. It also accused the official of enlisting an individual named Nikhil Gupta who would then hire a hit man. The indictment suggests that all criminal charges against Gupta were dropped at the behest of the Indian intelligence official. It also suggests a link between the alleged plot targeting Pannun and the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, which Canada has accused the Indian government agents of masterminding. The MEA has called the allegations “absurd”.
