The Justice Department charged an Indian national Wednesday for allegedly participating in a foiled murder-for-hire plot targeting an American Sikh political activist based in New York, and alleging an Indian government agency employee directed him to carry out the assassination plot—a similar claim to those by the Canadian government, which accused India of being behind the murder of a Canadian Sikh leader in June.
A member of United Hindu Front organisation holds a banner depicting Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. (Photo ... [+]
Court documents filed in the Southern District of New York allege an Indian government employee worked with Indian national Nikhil Gupta on a plot to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an attorney and political activist, on U.S. soil who was not named in the documents but is the alleged target according to multiple outlets.
The victim “is a vocal critic of the Indian government and leads a U.S.-based organization that advocates for the secession of Punjab,” a state in the north of India with a large Sikh population, according to the court documents.
Gupta allegedly contacted and agreed to a $100,000 deal to contract a hitman to murder the target in New York City.
He had actually contacted a confidential source working with U.S. law enforcement, and the “hitman” was an undercover U.S. law enforcement officer, according to the documents.
Gupta was arrested and detained on June 30 in the Czech Republic through a bilateral extradition treaty between the U.S. and the Czech Republic.
According to the DOJ, Gupta has been charged with murder-for-hire and conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, with each count carrying a maximum of 10 years in prison.
The Indian Foreign Ministry said earlier Wednesday an investigation was launched into the plot earlier this month after senior U.S. officials expressed concerns, the Wall Street Journal reported. The alleged plot against Pannun follows similar claims by the Canadian government in September that “agents of the Indian government” were behind the killing of a prominent Sikh community leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, on Canadian soil in June. Nijjar, a Canadian citizen, was shot and killed outside a Sikh cultural center in Surrey, British Columbia. He led a movement advocating for the creation of an independent Sikh nation called Khalistan following the proposed secession of Punjab from India. Both Nijjar and Pannun are considered terrorists by the Indian government, and both lead movements that are banned in India.
Before his first official visit to the U.S. in June after nine years in office, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “there is an unprecedented trust” between U.S. and Indian leaders, the Wall Street Journal reported.
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