An individual from India has admitted guilt on Friday to U.S. criminal charges for organizing an unsuccessful Indian government-supported scheme to assassinate a Sikh separatist in New York City, as part of a broader campaign to target Indian dissidents, as stated by U.S. and Canadian authorities. Nikhil Gupta, aged 54, acknowledged guilt for murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Gupta was accused by U.S. prosecutors of conspiring with an Indian government representative to eliminate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen and attorney at Sikhs for Justice in New York, who advocates for a sovereign Sikh state in northern India. The Indian government distanced itself from any involvement in a plot against Pannun, asserting it was against official policy.
The revelation of alleged assassination plots against Sikh separatists in the U.S. and Canada has strained relations with India, which has consistently denied any role in such activities. In June 2023, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was fatally shot in Surrey, B.C., a crime that former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later attributed to the Indian government. Nijjar’s killing was referenced in the Gupta case, with Nijjar identified as an associate of the intended victim in the planned U.S. assassination that Gupta was attempting to arrange.
Gupta made his plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in a federal court in Manhattan. According to a transcript of his plea hearing, Gupta confessed, “I agreed with another person to have another individual murder a person in the United States,” and he paid $15,000 to someone in New York to carry out the crime.
Gupta has been incarcerated in Brooklyn, N.Y., since his extradition to the U.S. in June 2024 from the Czech Republic, where he had been detained a year earlier. His sentencing is set for May 29, as per court records. His legal representatives have not responded to requests for comments, and the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C., has also not commented on the matter.
Prosecutors alleged that an Indian government official, Vikash Yadav, enlisted Gupta in May 2023 to arrange Pannun’s assassination, with Gupta disclosing his participation in international narcotics and weapons trafficking to Yadav. Yadav, who worked for India’s Cabinet Secretariat, which houses the Research and Analysis Wing, the country’s foreign intelligence service, was accused of arranging to pay $100,000 US to an undercover officer from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, posing as a hitman to eliminate Pannun. Gupta and Yadav arranged for an initial payment of $15,000 in cash to the undercover officer for the murder.
Both Gupta and Yadav face similar criminal charges, but Yadav is not in U.S. custody, and it is uncertain if he has retained legal counsel. U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Jay Clayton, stated in a release that “Nikhil Gupta conspired to assassinate a U.S. citizen in New York City. He wrongly believed he could carry out a murder within the U.S. without consequences from abroad, all for exercising their American right to free speech.”
