WASHINGTON – An Indian national, Nikhil Gupta, has pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court to plotting the assassination of Sikh activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York, the Justice Department announced on Friday.
Gupta, 54, admitted to charges including murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He entered the plea on February 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and is scheduled for sentencing on May 29.
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According to prosecutors, Gupta acted under the direction of an Indian government employee, Vikash Yadav, affiliated with India’s Cabinet Secretariat, which oversees the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), the country’s foreign intelligence service. Yadav remains at large.
An Indian national admitted to his role in a foiled 2023 criminal plot to kill a Sikh activist with US citizenship who was living in New York https://t.co/9H3ERk4bi7
— Bloomberg (@business) February 13, 2026
The Justice Department said the plot was orchestrated in May 2023, when Yadav recruited Gupta to arrange the killing of Pannun, a U.S. citizen and lawyer advocating for an independent Sikh state, Khalistan. Gupta reached out to someone he believed was a criminal associate but who was working with U.S. law enforcement. That individual introduced him to an undercover officer posing as a hitman.
Prosecutors said the conspirators agreed on a $100,000 payment for the assassination, with about $15,000 paid in advance. The plot was disrupted before any attack occurred.
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U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said Gupta acted on the belief that he could target someone in the United States “simply for exercising their American right to free speech,” but would now face justice. An FBI official described the case as an example of “transnational repression.”
The case comes amid heightened tensions between India and Western governments over alleged threats to Sikh separatists abroad. Canada has separately accused India of involvement in the 2023 killing of a Sikh leader in British Columbia, allegations New Delhi denies. Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic in June 2023 and later extradited to the United States.