Nikhil Gupta, 54, pled guilty on Friday to three charges of conspiracy to hire an assassin to kill Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City in 2023.
Prosecutors say Gupta was recruited by the Indian government to arrange Pannun’s murder, a charge denied by Indian officials.
Pannun is an American citizen, an outspoken critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and a lawyer who works with an advocacy group called Sikhs for Justice (SFJ). Pannun belongs to the Khalistani movement, which calls for an independent Sikh nation in the northern Indian state of Punjab.
The government of India strongly disapproves of the Khalistani movement and has been accused of acting against Sikh separatists on foreign soil, most famously in the case of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a Khalistani activist killed by masked gunmen in Vancouver in June 2023. Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau publicly accused India of assassinating Nijjar, prompting a major diplomatic feud between Canada and India.
U.S. prosecutors contend something similar happened with the plot against Pannun, with an Indian intelligence official named Vikash Yadav recruiting Gupta to put a price on Pannun’s head. Gupta was chosen for the job because he was, by his own account, an “international narcotics and weapons trafficker” who had criminal contacts in the United States.
Acting from within India, Gupta tried to hire a contract killer, only to discover he was actually communicating with an undercover source for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Gupta offered to arrange a $15,000 cash payment up front for killing Pannun, with another $85,000 to be paid after the job was done.
Prosecutors say Yadav furnished Gupta with information about Pannun, including his home address in New York City, phone numbers, and details of his regular activities that would be useful for setting up his murder. Gupta told his undercover contacts that he did not want the murder to be carried out too close to Indian Prime Minister Modi’s scheduled visit to the United States in June 2023.
Nijjar was murdered in Vancouver on June 18 of that year, prompting Gupta to tell the undercover DEA agent that Nijjar was “also the target” of an assassination plan, and “we have so many targets.” Gupta said there was “now no need to wait” for pulling the trigger on Pannun, since the Nijjar killing had captured worldwide headlines.
Gupta was arrested on June 30, 2023 while at the Prague airport in the Czech Republic and was extradited to the United States to face trial. Yadav, who was allegedly working for India’s Cabinet Secretariat at the time he allegedly orchestrated the murder-for-hire plot, has also been indicted in federal court in Manhattan, but remains at large.
Gupta chose to avoid a lengthy trial by pleading guilty on Monday to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He will reportedly serve at least 20 years in prison under his plea deal.
FBI Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky said Pannun “became a target of transnational repression” for exercising his freedom of speech and said Gupta’s sentence should send a clear message that “no matter where you are located, if you try to harm our citizens, we will not stop until you are brought to justice.”
“At the direction and coordination of an Indian government employee, Nikhil Gupta plotted to assassinate a United States citizen on American soil, facilitating a foreign adversary’s unlawful effort to silence a vocal critic of the Indian government,” said FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle, Jr.
“Nikhil Gupta plotted to assassinate a U.S. citizen in New York City. He thought that from outside this country he could kill someone in it without consequence, simply for exercising their American right to free speech. But he was wrong, and he will face justice,” said U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton.
The courtroom on Monday was filled with Sikhs from the U.S. and Canada, most of them self-declared members of the Khalistani movement. They chanted slogans when the hearing was over, held a prayer service outside the courthouse, and waved both American flags and yellow-and-blue Khalistan flags.
Pannun told the BBC on Monday that Gupta’s guilty plea was “judicial confirmation that India’s Modi government orchestrated a structured murder-for-hire assassination plot on American soil.”
Pannun described Gupta in a telephone interview on Monday as “just a foot soldier,” and insisted “the direction and the funds are authorized by the Indian government.”
“I am ready to take India’s bullet rather than take a step back and live like a slave. Working towards the independence of the Sikh state of Khalistan is my life’s mission, until either I am killed or Punjab becomes an independent country,” he said.
U.S. officials, under both the Biden and Trump administrations, have avoided accusing Prime Minister Modi of being involved in the plot to kill Pannun.
Indian officials continue to indignantly deny that Gupta had any connection to their government, although they concede that New Delhi has branded Pannun a “terrorist” and outlawed his group Sikhs for Justice. They dismiss Yadav, the mastermind of the plot, as a “rogue operative” who no longer works for the Indian government, although they have not acted to arrest or extradite him. India generally declines to answer media questions about the Gupta case.
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