A senior US lawmaker, whose approval paved the way for the Joe Biden administration formally notifying US Congress of the proposed sale of MQ-9B Sea Guardian drone, has said he has in return extracted a commitment from the administration that India will fully cooperate in the investigation of the murder-for-hire case in which an Indian official is alleged to have tried to kill a Khalistani activist.

The decks are clear now for the smooth passage for the deal through Congress, which has 30 days to either do nothing and let the administration take it to the next stage, or kill it though a “hold” by leaders of the foreign and armed services committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives; the former is controlled now by the Democrats and the latter by the Republicans.
The administration notified the US Congress on Thursday that it proposes to sell 31 MQ-9B drones made by General Atomics to India for nearly $4 billion. The deal was announced way back in June last year by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden.

The US Department of Justice then unsealed an indictment in November accusing Nikhil Gupta, an Indian businessman, of trying to hire a man — who turned out to be an official of the Drugs Enforcement Agency — to kill proscribed outfit Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) chief Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.