Sinister Plot Indian National Charged: US federal prosecutors have charged Indian national Nikhil Gupta with murder-for-hire targeting a Sikh political activist in New York City. Gupta, 52, worked with an alleged Indian official to organize a meeting with an undercover cop masquerading as a hitman to target the victim, a US citizen who criticized the Indian government, the accusation states.
Indian officials reportedly agreed to pay $100,000 to undercover officers for planned murders.. The victim, believed to be Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, leads “Sikhs for Justice,” an organization advocating for a separate Sikh homeland called Khalistan. Gupta faces charges of murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. He was arrested in June in the Czech Republic, where he awaits extradition.
Pannun, a terrorist in India for separatist actions, called the assassination a “threat to freedom of speech and democracy” in the US. The US-India relationship is strained by this episode and the Canadian assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Nijjar and Pannun were leaders of the Sikh separatist movement, and Gupta allegedly identified Nijjar as another target one day after his murder.
The indictment reveals that an Indian government official recruited Gupta to organize the assassination, directing him to contact someone he believed to be a hitman. Prosecutors claim Gupta received Pannun’s personal information and a video of Nijjar’s crime scene from the official. Gupta urged the supposed hitman to carry out the murder promptly but advised against doing it during anticipated engagements between high-level US and Indian government officials in the coming weeks. It is seeking a response from the Indian government.
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