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The US indictment has published a picture of Vikash Yadav in military fatigues. (Image: FBI)
Yadav met the complainant, Raj Kumar Walia, as an undercover agent working for the National Investigation Agency (NIA) before kidnapping Walia and forcing him to sign on blank cheques
Vikash Yadav, whom the FBI is looking for in connection with his alleged involvement in the conspiracy to kill Khalistani terrorist and US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, was arrested by the Delhi Police Anti-Terror Wing Special Cell last year for extortion and is out on bail after spending a few months in Tihar Jail.
The investigation in the extortion case had revealed that Yadav met the complainant, Raj Kumar Walia, as an undercover agent. The FIR says he was posing as a government official working for the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Yadav met Walia outside the NIA office before kidnapping him and extorting money.
Police officials learned about Yadav’s status as a “wanted” person through news reports. Sources indicated that Yadav had met Walia through a common friend at a party last year.
What the FIR Says
According to the FIR, Yadav met Walia who lives in Rohini and runs a café and lounge in West Delhi’s Moti Nagar. Yadav, along with his associate identified as Abdullah, told Walia that there was a serious threat to him and asked him to meet near the NIA office in Delhi on December 11 last year.
“The complainant, along with his friend Abhijit, went to meet Vikash Yadav, who was present with the accused Abdullah. Thereafter, the accused Abdullah pushed him into the car. The accused persons tortured and manhandled the complainant and demanded money in the name of gangster Lawrence Bishnoi,” a court order quoted in the FIR states.
“The accused persons beat him, administered injections, and hit him on the back of his neck. They also took a bank cheque book from the complainant’s café and obtained his signature on blank cheques, later dropping him near his car while threatening him to remain silent,” it continues.
The FIR noted that after returning, Walia discovered that the accused had also taken away Rs 50,000 kept in his café and deleted all CCTV recordings.
In his disclosure to the police, Yadav had stated that his father worked with the Border Security Force (BSF) and died in 2007, and that he got married in 2015.
What the FBI Says About Yadav
The US indictment states that Yadav also goes by the aliases ‘Vikas’ and ‘Amanat’. Yadav is a citizen and resident of India. At the times relevant to this indictment, he was employed by the Cabinet Secretariat of the Government of India, which houses India’s foreign intelligence service — the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). Yadav described his position as a ‘senior field officer’ with responsibilities in ‘security management’ and ‘intelligence’ and listed his employer’s address as the CGO Complex in New Delhi, where RAW is headquartered.
It also states that Yadav served in India’s Central Reserve Police Force, the country’s largest paramilitary force. “He described his position there as an ‘assistant commandant’ with command over a 135-member company. Yadav reported receiving counterintelligence, battle craft, weapons, and paratrooper training,” the US indictment noted.
