An individual from India admitted guilt on Friday in the United States for planning a failed assassination attempt on a Sikh separatist in New York City, which was part of a broader scheme to target dissenters from India. Nikhil Gupta, aged 54, confessed to charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
U.S. authorities alleged that Gupta conspired with an Indian government official to eliminate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada who is a lawyer at Sikhs for Justice in New York and has been advocating for an independent Sikh state in northern India. The Indian government distanced itself from any involvement in the plot against Pannun, stating that it contradicted official policies.
The revelation of alleged assassination plans against Sikh separatists in the U.S. and Canada has strained relations with India, which has denied any role in such activities. In a separate incident in June 2023, Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot dead in Surrey, B.C., an incident that former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau later suggested involved the Indian government. Nijjar’s murder was linked to the Gupta case, with Nijjar identified as an associate of the intended victim in the planned U.S. assassination that Gupta was arranging.
Gupta made his guilty plea before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in a federal court in Manhattan, admitting that he conspired to have an individual murdered in the United States and paid $15,000 to someone in New York to carry out the crime. Gupta has been in custody 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 according to court records.
The prosecution alleged that an Indian government official named Vikash Yadav recruited Gupta in May 2023 to plan Pannun’s assassination, with Gupta disclosing his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking to Yadav. Yadav, who works at India’s Cabinet Secretariat, allegedly arranged for Gupta to pay $100,000 to an undercover officer from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration posing as a hitman to kill Pannun. Gupta and Yadav arranged for an initial payment of $15,000 in cash to be delivered to the undercover officer as an advance for the murder.
Yadav faces the same criminal charges as Gupta but is not in U.S. custody, and it is uncertain if he has retained legal representation. The U.S. Attorney for Manhattan, Jay Clayton, condemned Gupta’s actions in a statement, emphasizing that Gupta’s attempt to silence an individual in the U.S. for exercising their right to free speech would not go unpunished.