U.S. Federal prosecutors announced murder-for-hire charges on Wednesday against Indian national Nikhil Gupta, who is accused of plotting with an Indian government official to assassinate a U.S. citizen who had called for a Sikh homeland to be carved out of India.
The case could have geopolitical implications with India seen in the U.S. as an increasingly important counterweight to China. The Indian government said it took the situation seriously. In September, relations between Canada and India were strained after the Canadians alleged Indian government involvement in the shooting of a Sikh separatist there – an accusation denied by New Delhi.
U.S. prosecutors said Gupta, a 52-year-old Indian national is also known as 'Nick', had been arrested in the Czech Republic on June 30, 2023, following the joint efforts of U.S. and international law enforcement agencies.
"As alleged, the defendant conspired from India to assassinate, right here in New York City, a U.S. citizen of Indian origin who has publicly advocated for the establishment of a sovereign state for Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India," U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in the statement.
"I am grateful that my Office and our law enforcement partners neutralized this deadly and outrageous threat. We will not tolerate efforts to assassinate U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, and stand ready to investigate, thwart, and prosecute anyone who seeks to harm and silence Americans here or abroad."
Newsweek was unable to contact Gupta or his lawyer for comment. The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York also emphasized that the defendant is considered innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.
The U.S. law enforcement agencies alleged that Gupta, acting with the unnamed Indian official, sought a presumed criminal associate to arrange the hiring of a hitman.
Unbeknownst to Gupta, the individual he contacted turned out to be an undercover U.S. law enforcement source. The undercover agent subsequently facilitated Gupta's connection with another law enforcement officer posing as the hitman, leading to a deal brokered for the Indian government official to pay the purported hitman a sum of $100,000 for the assassination. The indictment showed a photo of one alleged payment.
"Murder for hire is a crime out of a movie, but the plot in this case was all too real," said James Smith, Assistant Director in charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Gupta, implicated as a key player in the plot, was arrested abroad as part of a conspiracy led by an Indian government official who identified himself as a "Senior Field Officer" with roles in "Security Management" and "Intelligence," as disclosed by the Department of Justice. Neither the name nor the location of the alleged Indian official was identified.
Administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Anne Milgram said the DEA had also helped to stop the plot.
Concerns
U.S. authorities initially disclosed the foiled assassination plot against a Sikh separatist in the United States on November 22. U.S. President Joe Biden's administration expressed concerns to India over the potential government involvement, an Indian government official told Newsweek.
Indian authorities acknowledged that they had been informed of the matter by the United States and would set up a high-level inquiry.
"During the course of recent discussions on India-U.S. security cooperation, the U.S. side shared some inputs pertaining to nexus between organized criminals, gun runners, terrorists, and others. The inputs are a cause of concern for both countries and they decided to take necessary follow-up action," Indian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told a media briefing.
"On its part, India takes such inputs seriously since it impinges on our own national security interests as well. Issues in the context of U.S. inputs are already being examined by relevant departments."
Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the leader of the banned Khalistani group Sikhs for Justice (SFJ), was the alleged target of the foiled assassination plot, according to Reuters and other media reports. He has been charged with terrorism in India for his separatist calls.
Pannun had recently urged Indo-Canadian Hindus to leave Canada in a video titled "Leave Canada, Indo-Hindus, Go India" that drew wisdepread condemnation in Canada. He also drew anger after warning Sikh people against traveling on Air India on the date of the Cricket World Cup Finals—saying they could be in danger.
In a statement to Newsweek, Pannun said: "The attempt on my life on American Soil is the blatant case of India's transnational terrorism which has become a challenge to America's sovereignty and threat to freedom of speech and democracy, which unequivocally proves that India believes in using bullets while pro Khalistan Sikhs believe in ballots."
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