Prosecutors allege that Indian government officials were involved in the plot to kill Sikh leader Gurpatwant Singh Panun, a charge denied by New Delhi.
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An Indian national has admitted in a US court to participating in a 2023 plot to hire a hitman to assassinate a prominent Sikh separatist leader in New York, according to federal prosecutors.
Nikhil Gupta, 54, pleaded guilty Friday to attempting to contact a hitman to kill Gurpatwant Singh Panun, a Sikh separatist with dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship.
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Panun belongs to a New York-based group called Sikhs for Justice, which advocates for secession from India’s northern state of Punjab, which has a large Sikh population.
In court, Mr. Gupta told Judge Sarah Netburn that while in India in 2023, he sent $15,000 online to someone he believed would carry out the assassination.
The person Mr. Gupta contacted was actually a confidential source working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
FBI Deputy Director Roman Rosavsky said Panun was “subject to cross-border repression simply for exercising his right to free speech.”
Mr. Gupta, who was detained at Prague Airport in the Czech Republic in June 2023 and extradited to the United States, pleaded guilty to “murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced in a statement.
According to federal sentencing guidelines, Mr. Gupta could face 20 to 24 years in prison. The plea agreement calls for him to serve at least 20 years in prison.
The verdict is scheduled to be handed down on May 29th.
U.S. and Canadian officials say the plot is part of a broader operation targeting Indian dissidents abroad and has strained relations between Washington, Ottawa and New Delhi.
“Khalistan, the Sikh nation, is my life’s mission.”
James C. Barnacle Jr., director of the FBI’s New York office, said Mr. Gupta was working with Indian government officials who were instructed to arrange the killing.
Prosecutors allege that Vikash Yadav, an Indian intelligence agent who remains at large, led the plot and hired a hitman to recruit Mr. Gupta and carry out the murder in May 2023.
Indian officials denied involvement and said such operations were against government policy.
The incident has attracted the attention of Sikh activists in the United States and Canada.
About 20 Sikh supporters from Pannun attended Friday’s hearing, with some later chanting victory slogans, holding prayers outside the court and waving yellow “Khalistan” flags.
Panun, who has been designated a “terrorist” by New Delhi, said in a phone interview after the hearing that he plans to continue his work “even if I have to face bullets.”
“I’m not a terrorist,” he told The Associated Press.
He described himself as a Sikh and a human rights lawyer campaigning to transform Punjab into a place where “all religions have equal rights.”
Mr. Panun described Mr. Gupta as “a mere foot soldier” and called on U.S. authorities to go after those in India who he says authorized the plot.
“The Indian government cannot protect itself behind this operational infantry as its command, direction and funding are authorized by the Indian government,” he claimed.
“Instead of stepping back and living like a slave, I am ready to take India’s bullets. It is my life’s mission to work for the independence of the Sikh state of Khalistan until I am killed or Punjab becomes an independent state,” Panun said.
