An Indian man pleaded guilty on Friday to orchestrating a failed assassination plot against a Sikh separatist in New York, the first conviction tied to what officials in Canada and the United States say is a campaign by the Indian government to murder dissidents.
Nikhil Gupta, 54, pleaded guilty to charges of murder for hire, conspiracy to commit murder for hire and conspiracy to commit money laundering in federal court in Manhattan. Prosecutors estimated that under federal guidelines, Mr. Gupta, a resident of India, would face a sentence of up to about 24 years. The Indian government has rejected the accusations that it was involved.
The target of the plot, Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a lawyer at a New York-based group called Sikhs for Justice, is an American citizen and a proponent of independence for the northern Indian state of Punjab. Supporters of the separatist movement chanted in court after the verdict.
The indictment against Mr. Gupta outlined a brazen plot in which an Indian government official, Vikash Yadav, recruited Mr. Gupta in May 2023 to orchestrate the killing of Mr. Pannun. Mr. Gupta had told Mr. Yadav and others about his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking, the indictment says.
The case briefly made things awkward for the Biden administration as it tried to deepen U.S. political and economic ties with Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India in June 2023, efforts that included a state dinner. During that visit, a senior Indian official approved the assassination plot, according to prosecutors. Mr. Gupta was arrested and detained in the Czech Republic in June 2023, and in 2024 was sent to the United States to face prosecution.
U.S. officials have said that there is no evidence that Mr. Modi was aware of the plot.
Mr. Yadav was also indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges of murder for hire and two conspiracy counts, and is at large, prosecutors have said.
At Mr. Yadav’s direction, the indictment says, Mr. Gupta contacted someone he believed was a criminal associate for assistance in hiring a hit man to carry out the killing in New York. The supposed associate, a federal informant, introduced Mr. Gupta to a purported hit man who in fact was an undercover officer for the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Mr. Yadav, in dealings brokered by Mr. Gupta, agreed to pay the purported hit man $100,000 to carry out the assassination, and Mr. Gupta and Mr. Yadav arranged to have $15,000 in cash delivered as an advance payment to the undercover officer, the indictment says.
Mr. Gupta, speaking briefly in court, told Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn that in the spring of 2023, he agreed with another individual “to murder a person in the United States.” He also said that he had paid another person $15,000 as part of the plot.
Mr. Gupta’s lawyer, David Touger, had no comment after the hearing.
Benjamin Weiser is a Times reporter covering the federal courts and U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and the justice system more broadly.
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