Pannun murder plot: Nikhil Gupta pleads guilty in US in case linked to Indian government official

Indian citizen Nikhil Gupta on Friday pleaded guilty in a plot to assassinate a Khalistani separatist in New York in a case United States officials allege is linked to an Indian government employee.

Gupta, 54, pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering before US Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in a Manhattan federal court. The charges carry a maximum combined sentence of 40 years in prison.

In 2023, the United States Department of Justice accused Gupta of conspiring with an Indian government official to kill Khalistani separatist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.

Pannun, an American and Canadian citizen, is an advocate for Khalistan, an independent state for Sikhs. He is the general counsel of an organisation called Sikhs for Justice, which was banned in India in 2019. Pannun was declared an “individual terrorist” in India under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act in 2020.

The US charges came months after the Canadian government alleged the involvement of Indian government agents in the killing of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar near Vancouver in June 2023.

On Friday, after the hearing, Federal Bureau of Investigation Assistant Director in Charge James C Barnacle Junior said that Gupta had facilitated “a foreign adversary’s unlawful effort to silence a vocal critic of the Indian government”.

Barnacle claimed...

Read more