On a rainy night in June, President Biden toasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India during a state dinner at the White House, celebrating “two great friends, and two great powers” — a gesture of flattery for a leader he has enlisted to help the United States check China’s ambition and counter Russia’s aggression.
According to the White House, the president had no idea that a significant test to that relationship was unfolding, even during the state visit.
On June 22, as Mr. Biden pulled out all of the diplomatic stops to bring Mr. Modi closer, a senior official in the Indian government was offering the “go ahead” approving the murder-for-hire plot surrounding a Sikh American on U.S. soil, according to a Justice Department indictment filed in a federal court in New York Wednesday.
There was one flaw: The hit man turned out to be an undercover law enforcement officer, prosecutors said, and the plot was foiled.
The suspect, an Indian national accused of trying to arrange the killing, was arrested in the Czech Republic on June 30, eight days after the state dinner.
Persons:
Biden, Narendra Modi, ”, Modi
Organizations:
India, White
Locations:
United States, American, New York, Czech Republic