US court postpones sentencing of Nikhil Gupta, who pleaded guilty in plot to kill Khalistani leader

Nikhil Gupta, who pleaded guilty in a failed assassination plot targeting American Sikh activist and Khalistan movement leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, was due to be sentenced on May 29.

But court records show that, two months after the date was set by a US district court in New York, Gupta’s request to adjourn his sentencing was granted in April. He will now be sentenced on September 25.

Gupta is expected to receive a prison sentence of at least 19 years.

Earlier this year, on February 13, the US Attorney’s Office announced that Gupta had pleaded guilty in what prosecutors claimed was a “murder-for-hire plot” orchestrated by an Indian government employee who worked for India’s cabinet secretariat. India’s foreign intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing, is a wing of the cabinet secretariat.

Gupta, a 54-year-old Indian national whom US prosecutors described as an international narcotics and weapons trafficker, was allegedly tasked with arranging Pannun’s killing in New York in 2023.

According to the US Attorney’s Office, Gupta was charged with three counts: murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

India has repeatedly denied directing the plot, maintaining that such actions are contrary to government policy.

What was the case?

US federal prosecutors claim that the plot began in May 2023 when Vikash Yadav, an...

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