Nikhil Gupta Confesses To US Murder Plot Targeting Khalistani Extremist Pannun

New York: In a significant development, Indian national Nikhil Gupta, 54, entered a guilty plea in a Manhattan federal court on Friday for his role in a thwarted conspiracy to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a vocal pro-Khalistan activist. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced the admission, marking a key turn in the high-profile case.

Gupta confessed to handing over $15,000 to someone he presumed was a hired assassin tasked with killing Pannun, who leads the outlawed Sikhs for Justice group and operates from New York City. The plot unfolded in mid-2023, with Gupta initially denying involvement before reversing his stance.

US authorities assert that Gupta was enlisted by an Indian government employee for the murder-for-hire scheme, an action India has described as against its official stance. “Nikhil Gupta plotted to assassinate a US citizen in New York City,” stated US Attorney Jay Clayton. “He thought that from outside this country he could kill someone in it without consequence, simply for exercising their American right to free speech. But he was wrong, and he will face justice.”

Facing charges of murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and money laundering conspiracy, Gupta could receive up to 40 years in prison. US District Judge Victor Marrero has slated sentencing for May 29. Gupta remains in custody without bail in Brooklyn following his extradition from the Czech Republic in June 2024.

The indictment reveals that an individual labeled “CC-1”later named as Vikash Yadav, a former Central Reserve Police Force officer allegedly affiliated with India’s cabinet secretariat, home to the Research and Analysis Wing, reached out to Gupta in May 2023 to orchestrate the hit. Yadav was charged by the US Justice Department in October 2024 and is currently at large in India, where Delhi Police have filed an unrelated extortion case against him.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal confirmed after Yadav’s indictment: “The US State Department informed us that the individual in the Justice Department indictment is no longer employed by India. I confirm that he is no longer an employee of the Government of India.”

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Prosecutors detailed that Yadav tapped Gupta, who presented himself as an international dealer in narcotics and weapons, to eliminate a prominent critic of the Indian government pushing for Punjab’s secession. Media reports identified the target as Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen heading the India-proscribed Sikhs for Justice.

Intercepted messages show Gupta connected with a purported criminal contact actually a confidential source for US authorities who linked him to an undercover officer posing as the killer. On Yadav’s directive, Gupta committed to a $100,000 payment, advancing $15,000 in June 2023.

The case intersects with the slaying of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a pro-Khalistan figure labeled a terrorist by India, gunned down outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada. Hours after Nijjar’s death, Yadav allegedly forwarded Gupta a video of the body, noting that Nijjar “was also the target” and pressing urgency on Pannun’s elimination. “On or about June 19, 2023, the day after the Nijjar murder, Gupta told the UC that Nijjar ‘was also the target’ and ‘we have so many targets.’ Gupta added that, in light of Nijjar’s murder, there was ‘now no need to wait’ on killing the Victim. On or about June 20, 2023, Yadav sent Gupta a news article about the victim and messaged Gupta, ‘[i]t’s [a] priority now’,” per the US Justice Department.

India responded by establishing a high-level enquiry committee in November 2023 to probe US inputs. In January 2025, the ministry of home affairs reported: “After a long enquiry, the committee has submitted its report to the government and recommended legal action against an individual, whose earlier criminal links and antecedents also came to notice during the enquiry.”

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