A serious matter

The allegation contained in the chargesheet of an alleged Indian narcotics trafficker indicted in a New York court that he and an Indian government official were conspiring to have a Sikh separatist -- an American citizen -- assassinated by a hired gun is explosive. Though the target is not named, it is clear from the chargesheet that it is Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the controversial Khalistani activist that India has designated as a terrorist. The plot was thwarted because both the ‘hitman’ and the middleman who hired him turned out to be undercover US law-enforcing officials. The Indian government official is not named, but in his communications with Nikhil Gupta, the accused described himself as a “senior field officer”, with “security management” and “intelligence” responsibilities, with a previous stint in the Central Reserve Police Force. That does not leave too much to the imagination. More damagingly, the chargesheet appears to connect the official with the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada. Back in September, India had dismissed as “absurd” Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's claim of official Indian involvement in that killing. Perhaps Delhi may have chosen more cautious words had it known of the volume of evidence that US investigators seem to have collected to substantiate their allegations, including voice and text messages, and emails between Gupta and his co-conspirator (presented in the chargesheet as CC1). 

While the Indian official is not charged in the case in the US courts, this cannot be ruled out, nor is it beyond the realm of possibility that other Indian officials may also be drawn into the allegations. It is not clear why Gupta travelled to the Czech Republic from Delhi, where he was at once arrested by Czech authorities at the request of their US counterparts. It is also unclear why, in his alleged efforts to hire a hitman, Gupta zeroed in, of all the options that might be available in the American underworld, on a middleman who would turn out to be an undercover US law-enforcement agent.

What is increasingly clear is that the world does not share the alleged Indian enthusiasm for cross-border killings. Countries draw the line at other governments carrying out killings on their territory, targeting their citizens, more so when friendly countries are alleged to be behind such crimes. Cold War-style espionage-directed killings are passe. Now, it is Russia and China that kill their dissidents abroad. Even Israel draws the line at operations on friendly territory for a good reason -- they invite reprisals. The US took the evidence seriously enough to dispatch the CIA chief and another senior intelligence official to Delhi. The government has said it is carrying out an enquiry into the allegations. The matter may not cause major damage to India's broad-based ties with the US. It is not known if US President Joe Biden's absence from the final India-chaired G-20 summit, or the apparent reluctance to accept Prime Minister Narendra Modi's January 26 invitation, are on account of this issue. But it certainly appears to have caused a trust deficit between the security establishments of the two countries as well with other security partners, besides a massive dent in the credibility of the Indian security establishment.