In an interview to discuss and analyse the details revealed by the recently unsealed US indictment alleging that an Indian government official directed the plot to kill a US citizen on US soil, former R&AW head A.S. Dulat made many startling statements that will disturb both the Narendra Modi government and his former colleagues in the Indian intelligence fraternity.Dulat says that Nikhil Gupta, the man allegedly hired to arrange the murder, was an American agent set up as a trap to lure CC-1, the unnamed Indian government official who the US indictment says initiated the murder plot. He says CC-1 was clearly inexperienced, untrained and “sloppy”. Dulat says CC-1 “walked into a trap” that was set for him. CC-1 “bragged”, thus giving Nikhil Gupta, an American agent, a lot of detail and information, the former R&AW head said.This is the first and so far only interview done by someone who has spent his entire career in the Intelligence Bureau and R&AW talking extensively and in detail about the contents of the indictment.Towards the end of the interview, Dulat says repeatedly that Ajit Doval, the National Security Advisor, would have/should have known about what was happening but insisted that Doval would not be complicit. Dulat also clearly said that others, either “lateral” to Doval or above him might have also been in the picture.The US indictment describes CC-1 as an “identified Indian government employee” who earlier worked in the Central Reserve Police Force and, more importantly, adds “CC-1 was employed at all times relevant to this indictment by the Indian government, resides in India and directed the assassination plot from India.”Dulat said the American government and the US system as a whole have taken this indictment and the details it reveals very seriously, adding that the key meeting would have been the one between Ajit Doval and the US NSA Jake Sullivan in August. This meeting is believed to have happened in Jeddah.However, in the interview, Dulat repeatedly denied speculation and rumours, which are quite widespread, that CC-1 might be the former head of R&AW, Samant Goel. However, Dulat said Doval must/should know who CC-1 is and was pretty certain action has already been taken against him and he has been suitably punished.Asked why the Americans wanted to lure CC-1 into a trap, he said this is because “they smelt” something about him. Dulat said that clearly, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration knows a lot more about Nikhil Gupta, who he described as their agent, than the indictment reveals and, therefore, there could be some surprises in store for India when further details and information are revealed. Dulat also said the CIA and, possibly, the FBI know more than India has been told.A sizeable part of the interview is focused on the implications of the fact that on June 18, hours after Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s assassination in Canada, CC-1 “sent Gupta a video clip that shows Nijjar’s bloody body slumped in his vehicle”.Dulat agreed that this does raise questions about how and from whom CC-1 received this video clip, hours after Nijjar’s death, and agreed that there was “possibly” a link between CC-1 and either Nijjar’s killers or people very close to them who would have sent the clip.Dulat said that this matter would soon be resolved between the US and India but, he added, the US will want its pound of flesh.Interestingly, although Dulat begins by suggesting that the details in the US indictment are “a nice work of fiction”, everything he says thereafter in the interview suggests that he accepts the details as fact.
