NEW DELHI: Two allegations of Indian hit jobs against Khalistani radicals, one in Canada and the other in the US, got intertwined after the US Justice Department unsealed an indictment against a suspect recently. While the Canadian one was of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, who was shot dead outside a gurdwara in British Columbia by two unknown assailants on June 18, the US charge was about a murder-for-hire case against an Indian national who was allegedly part of a plot to bump off Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City.
India has since formed a high-level panel to go into the indictment since the US alleges that the operation against Pannun was handled remotely by an official in New Delhi. The handler was with the CRPF earlier, it claims. The middleman the handler recruited bragged to the assassin-on-hire about Nijjar being on their hit list, too, but was eliminated by someone else, hence the intertwining. Besides, the handler allegedly sent a video of Nijjar's body to the middleman, who shared it with the hired gun.
Matter of concern
While the foreign office described allegations in the US plot as a matter of concern since it is not India's policy to eliminate people it does not agree with, it simply brushed aside Canada's charges. Just the other day, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told Rajya Sabha that there will be no equitable treatment to Canada's allegations as no specific evidence or inputs were provided by them.
"Insofar as the US is concerned, certain inputs were given to us as part of our security cooperation with the US. Those inputs were of concern to us because they (were) related to the nexus of organised crime, trafficking and other matters... Because they have a bearing on our own national security, an inquiry committee has been constituted," he said.
Short shrift
When the matter first surfaced at the G20 summit in Delhi in September, India brusquely told off Canada, asking it to substantiate its charges. Nijjar's murder figured in the bilateral meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi had with his Canadian counterpart Justin Trudeau on the sidelines of the summit.
What transpired between them is not known but Trudeau went into a deep sulk till he left India. Bilateral relations nosedived with both sides expelling a diplomat each and India forcing Canada to withdraw 41 'excess' diplomats citing the principle of parity in diplomatic representation. India also temporarily froze visa services for Canadian citizens. The facility has just been restored.
At the same G20 meet, US President Joe Biden, too, brought up the Nijjar case with Modi, yet there was bonhomie all around. It was an indication of the maturing of mutual ties since the US hopes to use India as a pivot in its ambition to rein in China.
Hate merchant
India-born Pannun holds US and Canadian citizenship, hence the American concern about an alleged attempt on his life. "We will not tolerate efforts to assassinate US citizens on US soil and stand ready to investigate, thwart, and prosecute anyone who seeks to harm and silence Americans here or abroad,” U S Attorney Damian Williams said after the indictment was unsealed.
A lawyer by training, Pannun is a known hate merchant who incites Sikh extremists and incentivises attacks on India. He is the founder of Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), an outfit banned in India. Pannun often shares videos threatening India with extreme violence ranging from sabotaging Air India’s flights to attacking airports. He recently claimed responsibility for Khalistani graffiti on the walls of the Chintpurni temple in Himachal Pradesh. His latest is the threat to attack Parliament. Yet, the US inexplicably is yet to make him accountable for fostering a terror factory.
Shoddy job
On November 29, the US Attorney Office in the Southern District of New York unsealed the indictment, which claimed they had foiled a plot to kill a US national on their soil; it didn't name Pannun. It only identified the middleman as Nikhil Gupta, 52, who was arrested in Prague on June 30. After a Prague court approved his extradition to the US, he filed an appeal against the order.
The indictment alleges Gupta's involvement in international weapons and narcotics trafficking. He was embroiled in a narcotics case in Gujarat when his handler tapped him for the dirty work and promised he would make his case go away if he complied. Gupta took the bait, the indictment claims.
However, initial reports suggest the Centre's national registry on narcotics traffickers does not have any record of a Nikhil Gupta in Gujarat. Entries in five different states pop up during a random search for the name, but not in Gujarat.
Gupta is the only person named in the 15-page indictment, which refers to his handler as CC-1. The handler, it claims, is an Indian intelligence officer based in Delhi, who was earlier trained in the CRPF. The resource person Gupta reached out to for hiring a hitman is referred to as CS. CS was working for the US law enforcement department, so the alleged plot has been under the scanner ever since. Through CS, Gupta was introduced to the alleged hitman, who actually was an undercover agent of the US law enforcement department. The indictment calls him UC.
The charges in the indictment are accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
A bare reading of the alleged indictment gives you a sense of a muddled operation by an amateur handler who makes all the wrong calls but has financial resources at his disposal. Check out the tentative timeline put out in the indictment in the accompanying box.
The tentative timeline in the indictment
Through a series of messages, CC-1 connects with Gupta to recruit him for the alleged murder of Pannun in May. Gupta, facing criminal cases in Gujarat, agrees to meet CC-1 in Delhi with the understanding that the charges against him would be resolved as part of a quid pro quo arrangement.
May 6: CC-1 texts Gupta that they have targets in New York and California. Gupta responds by saying “We will hit our all targets”
May 12: CC-1 informs Gupta that his cases in Gujarat had been taken care of, assures the police would not trouble him henceforth
May 23: CC-1 further reassures Gupta that his cases have been managed; offers to arrange a meeting with a Deputy Commissioner of Police in Gujarat
May 29: Gupta contacts CS over the phone, who he thinks is a criminal associate; seeks assistance in contracting a hitman in NYC, and names Pannun as a target. CS seeks more information on Pannun and $1,00,000 for the hit job. Deal okayed by CC-1, who was actually willing to pay $1,50,000 or more ‘depending upon the quality of the work’
June 1: CC-1 shares the target's address with Gupta, who passed it on to CS
June 3: Gupta calls CS on his phone and urges him to complete the job; updates CC-1 about the conversation
June 4: CS sends Gupta surveillance photo of Pannun saying he was being monitored and the job would be done if an advance payment of $25,000 is made
June 5: Gupta asks CC-1 if his contacts can make the advance payment
June 6: Gupta asks CS to connect him with the hitman to whom the advance is to be paid. CS introduces him to UC through messages. Gupta shares with CC-1. Besides, Gupta tells CS to calm things down for 10 days because of upcoming US-India meetings at the highest level, to avoid adverse political attention
June 7: Gupta informs CC-1 that the advance is yet to be paid
June 9: CC-1 assures Gupta that the payment will be made soon. An associate hands over $15,000 in cash to UC in the latter’s car in Manhattan after a video call with Gupta. A screenshot of the cash exchange is part of the indictment
June 11: CC-1 tells Gupta if the killing doesn't happen today, it would have to be done after June 24. Prime Minister Modi was in the US for a bilateral summit with President Joe Biden between June 21 and 24
July 12: Gupta calls up UC and strangely (instead of being cautious) turns on the video camera exposing three men present in the room. Anyone with even an iota of commonsense would want to build distance from the assassin for deniability instead of exposing his associates. Gupta tells UC that they were counting on him, dangles the carrot of another big hit job in Canada
June 14: Gupta asks CS for a similar murder-for-hire team in Canada
June 18: Masked gunmen kill Hardeep Singh Nijjar outside a gurdwara in British Columbia, Canada. CC-1 shares a video clip of Nijjar’s bloody body slumped in his vehicle with Gupta, who forwards it to CS and UC. An hour later, CC-1 shares Pannun's NYC street address
June 19: Gupta tells UC over the phone that Nijjar was one of their targets but not high on the pecking order. He also calls CS and says since they had not bumped off Nijjar, the job was given to someone else. After Nijjar’s killing, they want to expedite the NYC hit despite Modi’s trip. "We got the go-ahead to go anytime – today or tomorrow at the earliest possible. UC has to finish this job brother,’’ Gupta allegedly tells CS, warning that Pannun would be cautious as Nijjar was liquidated
June 20: CC-1 sends a news story about Pannun to Gupta with a message — it’s a priority now. Gupta calls CS, and gives him time till June 29 to finish four hit jobs — Pannun plus three other undefined ones in Canada
June 22: CC-1 messages Gupta that the target is not at home. Gupta’s call to UC goes unanswered. He then messages UC that the victim was not at home, and asks him to ensure the target is in the house before entering it
June 25: UC sends Gupta some photos taken from the vicinity of Pannun’s residence which had GPS coordinate stamps. Gupta forwards them to CC-1
June 26: CC-1 tells Gupta the coming 24 hours will be crucial for Pannun… either at home or office. Gupta forwards this to UC asking him to keep his eyes on Pannun's residence, office and a café he is a regular in
June 29: Gupta messages UC that he had intel that Pannun is in his residence and is likely to come out; instructs UC to carry out the act and get photos if he is sure
June 30: Gupta travels to the Czech Republic from India. No mention in the indictment of when he came to India and whether he was sending out the last few messages from India or the US. Gupta was arrested by the Czech law enforcement department. Strangely, he does not seek consular support in Prague and chooses to fight the case through his lawyer
20+ terrorists killed in Pak
In what appears to be a completely unrelated development, over 20 terrorists have been killed in Pakistan since March 2022. Quite a few of them were involved in terror attacks against Indian security forces and other assets.
The unexplained killings include those of Maulana Ziaur Rehman, Mufti Qaiser Farooq, Shahid Latif and Adnan Ahmad. Besides, Khalistani terrorist Lakhbir Singh Rode, a nephew of Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, reportedly died of a heart attack in Pakistan on December 2.
Adnan Ahmed was a mastermind behind the 2016 attack on a CRPF convoy in Pampore. He was attacked by unknown gunmen in Karachi on December 3 and succumbed to his wounds two days later.
Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorist Shahid Latif was the mastermind behind the 2016 Pathankot terror attacks. He was killed on October 11 by unidentified gunmen in Sialkot, Pakistan.
Ziaur Rehman was a Lashkar-e-Toiba member and a cleric who radicalised the youth to launch a jihad against India. He was shot dead by unknown motorcycle-borne assailants on September 29.