A 54-year-old Indian national has pleaded guilty in a New York federal court to orchestrating a failed assassination plot against Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, marking the first conviction connected to what U.S. officials describe as an effort by individuals tied to India to target dissidents on American soil.
Nikhil Gupta entered his guilty plea Friday in Manhattan federal court to charges of murder for hire, conspiracy to commit murder for hire, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Prosecutors estimate that under federal sentencing guidelines, Gupta faces up to 24 years in prison. The Indian government has denied any involvement in the alleged scheme.
According to the indictment, an Indian government official, Vikash Yadav, recruited Gupta in May 2023 to coordinate the killing of Pannun in New York. Prosecutors allege Gupta boasted of his links to international narcotics and weapons trafficking during discussions related to the plot.
Pannun, a lawyer born in Amritsar, Punjab, is now a U.S. citizen and a leader of Sikhs for Justice, a New York-based organization.
Court documents state that at Yadav’s direction, Gupta reached out to someone he believed to be a criminal associate to secure a hit man. That individual was, in fact, a federal informant, who introduced Gupta to an undercover officer with the Drug Enforcement Administration posing as a contract killer.
Prosecutors allege that Yadav agreed to pay $100,000 for the assassination. As part of the arrangement, $15,000 in cash was delivered as an advance to the undercover officer.
In court, Gupta admitted that in the spring of 2023 he agreed with another individual “to murder a person in the United States” and confirmed he paid $15,000 toward the plan.
The case surfaced publicly in June 2023, during efforts by the administration of President Joe Biden to strengthen economic and political ties with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The diplomatic outreach included a state dinner in Washington. Prosecutors have alleged that a senior Indian official approved the plot during that period.
U.S. authorities have said there is no evidence that Modi was aware of the scheme.
Gupta was arrested in the Czech Republic in June 2023 and extradited to the United States in 2024. Yadav has also been indicted in the Southern District of New York on charges of murder for hire and conspiracy but remains at large.
