FBI Chief To Visit India Next Week Amid Row Over Bid To Kill Khalistani Terrorist Pannun

Eric Garcetti said that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray is likely to visit India next week.

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray.

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Amid the controversy over an attempt to assassinate Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil, United States Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti said on Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher Wray is likely to visit India next week.

Last week, the US Justice Department alleged that an Indian government official, Nikhil Gupta, made an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Pannun. He was said to have done so along with another person who was an 'undercover' agent.

Speaking on the relations between India and the US during a panel discussion at the Carnegie ‘Global Technology Summit’ held in New Delhi, Ambassador Eric Garcetti said, “This was the Number 1 country she [US Secretary of Treasury Janet Yellen] went to outside the United States. Four times this year. The Secretary of State [Antony Blinken] just came here for the third time. Secretary of Defence [Lloyd Austin] for the second time. The FBI director is here next week," as quoted by India Today.

Earlier, the Principal Deputy National Security Advisor of US President Joe Biden Jon Finer took note of the decision of the Indian government to set up a panel to probe the allegations of an attempt by the Indian official to kill Pannun in the US, stated a White House readout. It said that Finer acknowledged the setting up of a Committee of Enquiry and India's understanding of the importance of holding accountable anyone who is found responsible for the act.

"Finer acknowledged India’s establishment of a Committee of Enquiry to investigate lethal plotting in the United States and the importance of holding accountable anyone found responsible," the White House said.

"When this alleged incident was brought to our attention, we made very clear at the most senior levels of our government to the most senior levels of the Indian government how seriously we would treat something like this. They have opened an investigation into the matter and we look forward to seeing the results of that investigation," State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters at his daily news conference, as quoted by PTI.