The botched alleged murder-for-hire operation to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Khalistani activist, has left India with a lot of egg on its face.
With the middleman of the conspiracy, Nikhil Gupta, being entrapped by the US' Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the course of its investigation, the developments indicate very little legroom for New Delhi to wriggle out of its predicament.
Fortunately, for reasons of his own, Gupta pleaded guilty in a New York court and spared us the burden of having prosecutors rub India's nose on the ground with the evidence they had collected.
Luckily, too, the Indian official who allegedly contracted Gupta to arrange the assassination was operating from India, where he has now gone underground. The US indictment names Vikash Yadav, an erstwhile junior officer of the Research & Analysis Wing (R&AW), as a co-accused—and it remains to be seen whether the US will seek his extradition.
He remains in the FBI’s “most wanted” list.