Earlier on Thursday, the Ministry of External Affairs confirmed that Yadav, named in the US Justice Department's indictment regarding the assassination plot, is no longer an employee of the Indian government.
“The US State Department informed us that the individual in the Justice Department indictment is no longer employed by India. I confirm that he is no longer an employee of the Government of India,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a press conference.
Born in 1984 in Haryana, Yadav is an Indian national based in India and used “Amanat” as an alias when communicating with his co-conspirator, another Indian national, to facilitate the murder plot, according to the information mentioned on the wanted poster released by FBI.
In a statement, the US Justice Department said, “Yadav is charged in a second superseding indictment unsealed today in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Yadav's alleged co-conspirator, Nikhil Gupta, 53, was previously charged and extradited to the United States on the charges contained in the first superseding indictment. Yadav remains at large.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray has claimed that the defendant, an Indian government employee, allegedly conspired with a criminal associate and attempted to assassinate an American citizen on US soil for exercising their First Amendment rights.
Wray further said, “The FBI will not tolerate acts of violence or other efforts to retaliate against those residing in the U.S. for exercising their constitutionally protected rights. We are committed to working with our partners to detect, disrupt, and hold accountable foreign nationals or others who seek to engage in such acts of transnational repression.”
Administrator Anne Milgram of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has stated that the DEA foiled the assassination attempt in 2023 and “has continued to trace this case back to an employee of the Indian government whom we charge was an orchestrator of this intricate murder-for-hire scheme. DEA did not relent, and today's indictment names Vikash Yadav as an alleged mastermind.”
She further said, “We charge that Yadav, an employee of the Indian government, used his position of authority and access to confidential information to direct the attempted assassination of an outspoken critic of the Indian government here on US soil.”
She noted that the case was led by the DEA New York Division's Drug Enforcement Task Force, comprised of the DEA, the New York State Police, and the New York City Police Department. According to US Attorney Damian Williams, this office last year charged Nikhil Gupta for conspiring to assassinate an American citizen of Indian origin on US soil.
As alleged in the second superseding indictment and other public court documents, in 2023, Yadav, working together with others, including Gupta, in India, and elsewhere, directed a plot to assassinate “an attorney and political activist who is a US citizen of Indian origin residing in New York City (the victim) on American soil.”
US Justice Department said, “During times relevant to the second superseding indictment, Yadav was employed by the Government of India's Cabinet Secretariat, which houses India's foreign intelligence service, the Research and Analysis Wing. Yadav has described his position as a ‘senior field officer” with responsibilities in “security management” and “intelligence’.”