FBI Chief Set To Visit India Amid Row Over Plot To Kill Khalistani Terrorist Pannun

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Christopher A Wray will visit India next week, the US Ambassador to India said on Wednesday.

The announcement comes days after the US federal prosecutors accused an Indian citizen of getting involved in a plot to assassinate Khalistan separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on American soil.

Ambassador Eric Garcetti, at a panel discussion at the Carnegie 'Global Technology Summit' held in New Delhi, 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."

The visit aims to strengthen cooperation between the United States and India on law enforcement issues.

Last week, the US federal prosecutors accused Indian national Nikhil Gupta of working with an Indian government employee in the foiled plot to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh extremist who is an American and Canadian citizen.

An unnamed Indian official appeared in an indictment filed by US federal prosecutors in a Manhattan court on Wednesday along with the Indian national, who the Department of Justice alleges hired someone in the US to assassinate Pannun.

Responding to the allegations, India said that it was a "matter of concern", while asserting that a high-level probe committee will investigate all aspects of the case.

"The government announced today that it was conducting an investigation, and that's good and appropriate, and we look forward to seeing the results," Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters travelling with him in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Thursday.

Blinken did not give any details about the case, calling it an ongoing legal matter.

"So you'll understand I can't comment on it in detail. I can say that this is something we take very seriously. A number of us have raised this directly with the Indian Government in past weeks," Blinken said.

Also, the White House praised New Delhi for setting up its own investigations into the matter and said this will not have an impact on the India-US relationship.

"These allegations in this investigation, (we) take it very seriously. And we're glad to see that the Indians are too announcing their own efforts to investigate this. And we've been clear that we want to see anybody that's responsible for these alleged crimes to be held properly accountable," John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House, told reporters at a news conference here.

However, this will not have an impact on the India-US relationship, he said, observing that the US unearthed this plot after the historic visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the US in June.