The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has shared its findings with the United State’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) pertaining to the March 2023 attack on the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, to ensure that the perpetrators are prosecuted for the offence expeditiously.
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During the visit of a U.S. delegation led by FBI Director Christopher A. Wray about a month ago, the senior agency officials had held a detailed discussion on the issue. They apprised the delegation of the inputs gathered by the NIA, including the information on the nexus between terrorists and members of organised criminal syndicates.
‘Aggressively probing’
Mr. Wray had informed the officials that the FBI was aggressively probing the attack. It is learnt that the FBI case has not yet reached the prosecution stage and investigations are still under way.
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In September 2023, the NIA had released the photographs of 10 persons wanted for the attack and vandalism at the Indian Consulate in San Francisco. It had issued three separate “Request for Identification & Information” notices seeking information that could lead to the arrest or detention of the accused persons.
The agency had registered the case in June 2023 under various provisions of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act to investigate the attack that took place in the intervening night of March 18 and 19, 2023. Some pro-Khalistan entities had allegedly illegally entered the consulate premises and tried to set it afire.
The same day, slogan-shouting Khalistan supporters had broken through the makeshift security barriers installed by the local police and put up two pro-Khalistan flags on the consulate premises, damaged the building, assaulted and injured some consulate officials.
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In another case related to the attack on the High Commission of India in London on March 19 last year, the NIA questioned some persons linked to the case, during their visit to India. In August 2023, the agency had raided 31 locations related to the suspects and their associates in Punjab and Haryana.
A group of about 50 pro-Khalistan persons had attacked the High Commission, causing disrespect to the Indian National flag, damaging the public property and injuring some officials. The NIA found that the attack had been organised allegedly by Gurcharan Singh of Dal Khalsa, United Kingdom; Avtar Singh Khanda (who recently died) of Khalistan Liberation Force; one Jasvir Singh, and their associates.
An NIA team had visited the United Kingdom in May last year as part of the investigations in the case. Based on “crowdsourced information”, it also identified the attackers.