A high-powered enquiry committee, set up by the Union government to investigate inputs from the United States about an alleged foiled plot to kill Sikh separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, has recommended “legal action against an individual”, the Ministry of Home Affairs stated on Wednesday.

“After a long enquiry, the committee has submitted its report to the Government and recommended legal action against an individual, whose earlier criminal links and antecedents also came to notice during the enquiry,” read the ministry’s statement.

It added: “The Enquiry Committee has recommended that the legal action must be completed expeditiously.”

The ministry, however, did not name the individual against whom action has been recommended.

New Delhi set up the committee in November 2023 after a Financial Times report said that the Joe Biden administration had foiled a plot to assassinate Pannun on American soil.

The report also said that the US had warned India about concerns that the Narendra Modi government was involved in the conspiracy. Indian officials expressed “surprise and concern” in response to the allegations, according to the White House.

Subsequently, the US Attorney’s Office, Southern District of New York, announced that it had filed murder-for-hire charges against an Indian citizen named Nikhil Gupta in connection with his alleged participation in the plot to assassinate Pannun.

Pannun, an American and Canadian citizen, is an advocate for Khalistan, an independent state for Sikhs. He is the general counsel of an organisation called Sikhs for Justice, which was banned in India in 2019. The next year, Pannun was declared an “individual terrorist” in India under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act.

On Wednesday, the home ministry stated that the high-powered committee was set up “on receipt of information provided by US authorities regarding activities of some organised criminal groups, terrorist organisations, drug peddlers, etc., who undermined the security interests of both India and the US”.

The committee conducted its investigation and also looked into leads provided by the US. It examined several officials from different agencies and scrutinised relevant documents, the ministry stated.

“The committee has further recommended functional improvements in systems and procedures as also initiation of steps that could strengthen India’s response capability, ensure systematic controls and coordinated action in dealing with matters like this,” it added.

In November 2023, the US prosecutor alleged that Gupta paid $100,000, or Rs 84 lakh, in cash to a hitman to assassinate Pannun. The hitman turned out to be an undercover United States federal agent.

The plot was part of a larger conspiracy to kill one person in California and at least three in Canada, the US Department of Justice alleged.

In October, the US charged Vikash Yadav, a former officer of India’s foreign intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing, with murder-for-hire and money laundering in connection with the matter.

The United States Department of Justice alleged that Yadav hired Gupta to murder Pannun.

Gupta denied having links to Yadav and told The Indian Express that the evidence presented by the US was “fabricated”.

In June, Gupta pleaded not guilty at a Manhattan Federal Court in New York.

New Delhi has denied involvement in the alleged plot to assassinate Khalistani separatists.

The US charges came months after the Canadian government alleged the involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Sikh Separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver in June 2023.