An Indian man pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges that he orchestrated an assassination plot against a Sikh separatist in New York that prosecutors said he devised for an unnamed Indian government official.
The defendant, Nikhil Gupta, 52, was arrested in the Czech Republic a year ago and extradited last week to make his initial appearance in Manhattan federal court. He is accused of orchestrating the murder of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a New York-based lawyer for a Sikh separatist group and a U.S. citizen.
Prosecutors say the attempted murder, sparked by doubts about India’s commitment to democracy, spans several countries and has similarities to another separatist killing in Canada.
Gupta, 26, entered a lower Manhattan courtroom on Monday morning wearing a blue cardigan and yellow patterned shirt and appeared relaxed as he spoke with his lawyer, Jeffrey Chabreau, from the dock. He has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn since arriving in the United States on Friday afternoon.
In a statement to reporters after the arraignment, Chabrow said the case was a “complex issue” for India and the U.S. “As the context and details become clear, they may shed entirely new light on the government’s case,” he said.
Gupta has been charged with contract murder and conspiracy to commit contract murder. If convicted, he faces up to 10 years in prison on each charge. He was remanded to jail after his arraignment on Monday and is due to appear again in court on June 28.
Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said in a statement Monday that Gupta “will now face justice in an American court.” “Today’s extradition makes clear that the Department of Justice will not tolerate attempts to silence or harm the American people,” he said.
In an indictment unsealed last November, federal prosecutors in Manhattan described a brazen plot that began around May 2023, when Indian government officials enlisted Gupta to plan the assassination of Pannun, who was living in New York at the time.
Panun, a lawyer representing Sikhs for Justice, a pro-separatist group in the northern Indian state of Punjab, is a vocal critic of the Indian government and has been barred from entering the country, prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, Gupta, who lives in India, told government officials about his “involvement in international drug and arms trafficking.”
At the direction of Indian government officials, Mr. Gupta contacted a man in New York who he believed could help him hire a hit man, but who turned out to be a U.S. government agent, who introduced him to an undercover DEA agent posing as the hit man.
In a deal brokered by Mr. Gupta, Indian government officials agreed to pay DEA agents $100,000 to kill Mr. Pannun, which also included a $15,000 advance for the job, according to prosecutors.
Mr. Gupta then gave the undercover agents personal information about Mr. Pannun, including his New York address and phone number. When Indian officials asked for updates, Mr. Gupta provided them with security camera photos of Mr. Pannun that the agents had sent them.
According to the indictment, Gupta instructed undercover agents to carry out the assassination as soon as possible, but asked them not to do it at a time when high-level talks between U.S. and Indian officials were taking place, including when Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Washington in June 2023 and met with President Biden.
Then, on June 18 of that year, militants killed another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, in British Columbia, Canada, who knew Pannun and was an outspoken critic of the Indian government, according to prosecutors.
Soon after, Gupta told the undercover agent that Nijjar “was a target” and that “there are a lot of targets,” according to prosecutors. Gupta then told the fake hit man that “there is no need to wait any longer” to kill Pannun, prosecutors said.
Pannun said in a statement Monday that he had “full confidence” the United States would hold Gupta and his co-conspirators accountable.
“The attempt on my life on US soil is a clear example of Indian international terrorism challenging US sovereignty and clearly demonstrates that India under Modi believes in using violence to suppress dissent,” he said.
A spokesman for the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC, could not immediately be reached for comment on Monday.
Gupta’s case risks complicating the fragile relationship between Washington, Ottawa and New Delhi. Throughout his presidency, Biden has sought to encourage Indian leaders to counter Russian and Chinese influence despite growing concerns about India’s commitment to democracy.
Modi, who has been prime minister since 2014, was re-elected as India’s prime minister in June despite his Bharatiya Janata Party losing its majority in parliament.
