Agent Vikash: Wanted by FBI, but patriot to his village

Vikash Yadav’s house in Pranpura is harder to reach than to find. It’s only after clearing a couple of verification rounds from locals that the large iron gate that hides most of the single-storey house with a pink fence — on the last line of settlements beyond which lies typically shrub-speckled Aravali terrain — parts. But there’s no going in unaccompanied.

“Sensitive matter,” we are told by a group playing cards that is our first ‘check point’.

“No cameras, please, and no recording on the mobile phone,” we are subsequently told by our local escort who agrees to show us the way.

Sporadically seen and rarely heard from, Vikash is as inconspicuous as he could be in Pranpura, just one among hundreds of its youths who took up jobs and left and return only to visit family. This changed last week, sensationally.

On Oct 17, Vikash shot to the top of an unravelling international diplomatic row after the United States department of justice revealed it had brought murder-for-hire charges against him for the attempted assassination of New York-based separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. Vikash, according to the American indictment, was also aware of the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar , another separatist, last year in Canada, which has brought a chill in New Delhi-Ottawa ties after the Justin Trudeau govt alleged Indian govt agencies were involved.

Though the US indictment refers to Vikash as an Indian govt official — employed by the cabinet secretariat that oversees R&AW — New Delhi has denied it, saying Vikash had been dismissed from service. In a recent statement, Union ministry of external affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said, “Vikash Yadav is no longer an employee of govt of India.”

Pranpura and Vikash’s family believe neither.

The watch has been necessitated by journalists landing up and making inquiries about Vikash since the US indictment revealed his name as a co-conspirator (CC1). Pranpura, part of a cluster of villages in Haryana’s Rewari district near the industrial town of Bawal, is 105 km to Delhi’s south, but not on any of the state or national highways that crisscross the region. In this place of familiar faces and routines, the American revelation creased many brows for two reasons — that Vikash was now wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the indictment’s implication that he was working as an Indian spy.

“How do you know what the Americans are saying is true?” shot back Sudesh. In her 60s, Vikash’s mother spoke from behind the gate after our escort, Rajeev, called out to her. Sudesh, and anyone else you talk to in the village, insist Vikash has always been and remains a govt employee.

“My son works for the country and our govt will take care of him,” said Sudesh, who knows little else about Vikash’s job except that he is a “CRPF (Central Reserve Police Force) commandant”.

It’s how the rest of Pranpura — which prides itself as a ‘fauji gaon’ (Army village) with a martyrs’ memorial next to the panchayat office its most prominent landmark — knows Vikash too. Like many of them, Rajeev, a neighbour of Sudesh, brushed off the Pannun plot revelation, calling Vikash “a patriot who serves the country”.

Vikash, now 39, was born in a ‘fauji’ household in the mid-80s. His father Ram Singh Yadav was in the BSF and died of a heart attack in 2007 when he was posted in Tripura. The family moved around the North East with Yadav senior’s postings, so Vikash and Ajay did their schooling in different places, including Shillong . But both completed their graduation from Ahir College in Rewari.

Ajay is now posted in Gurgaon as a police head constable. His wife and two children live with Sudesh. Vikash’s family — wife and one-year-old daughter — is in Delhi.

“Our family has always served the country,” said Sudesh. “I don’t believe Vikash committed any crime.” Vikash, added Sudesh, does not visit home regularly and “calls once in a while”. “I don’t know where he and his family are right now. He hasn’t contacted us,” she said, declining comment on media reports that Vikash had spoken to his family after his name as CC-1 was revealed and rubbished the charges.

Sudesh said she also had no idea about his arrest last year by Delhi Police. The arrest on Dec 18 by Delhi Police’s Special Cell, on charges of extortion and kidnapping of a businessman from Rohini, followed the first indictment in the Pannun plot probe by the department of justice last Nov. Vikash spent three months in custody before a Delhi court granted him six days of interim bail on March 22 to see his daughter who was undergoing treatment for acute respiratory infection.

The court order described Vikash as an “ex-govt employee with clean antecedents”. On April 22, Vikash was granted regular bail with no objection from the prosecution.

A Central Administrative Tribunal principal bench order dated Nov 29, 2023 shows Vikash was appointed senior field officer (SFO) of Aviation Research Centre (ARC) in the executive cadre of Directorate General of Security (cabinet secretariat) on Oct 9, 2023 after the completion of probation. ARC is part of R&AW. Vikash knocked on CAT’s door for permanent appointment after working as a probationer in the agency since Nov 2015.

In May, soon after his release from prison, Vikash visited Pranpura, the last time Sudesh claims she saw him. “He came here alone and stayed for a couple of days. He didn’t tell me that he was arrested,” Sudesh said.

Vikash, neighbour Rajeev offered, hardly left his home during visits, so interactions with him since he began working were rare. “He was good in academics and a fitness freak,” Rajeev said.

A local resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity said no one in India would see Vikash as a criminal, even if the US indictment is true. “Pannun is a wanted accused in India and America does not want to hand him over to us. They also did not hand over (26/11 Mumbai terror attacks accused) David Headley, who is a terrorist. Assuming Vikash is an Indian officer, why should India hand him over for doing his job?” he said. Another villager said since the US indictment named Vikash, police had visited the sarpanch and made some inquiries. “No security has been posted here as they felt it is not required in our village. It is safe here,” said a neighbour of Sudesh.

“We will wait and watch. What else can we do?” said a neighbour. “Sarkar dekh legi.”

How do you know what the Americans are saying is true, asks Vikash’s mother Sudesh, speaking from behind the gate of their house at Pranpura in Rewari. She insists, along with others from the village, that he is a patriot and a govt employee, calling the US’s murder-for-hire allegations ‘false’.