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01-12-2023
WASHINGTON/ LONDON: US law enforcement authorities have announced filing a “murder-for-hire” charge against Indian national Nikhil Gupta in what they said was a “foiled plot to assassinate” pro-Khalistan leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun in New York City allegedly supervised by an Indian government official.
Sources said Indian national Gupta is a veteran agent working for the Indian spy agency RAW.
The US indictment said that Gupta, an Indian national residing in India, “is an associate of CC-1, and has described his involvement in international narcotics and weapons trafficking in his communications with CC-1 and others” and that he was being directed by the Indian government official to kill Pannun, who is Sikhs For Justice’s (SFJ) founder and spokesman of Khalistan Referendum.
He has been charged with murder-for-hire over the plot, which prosecutors said was orchestrated from India against the Sikh leader who lives in New York
Shortly after the indictment was unsealed, the White House said it had raised the issue with the Indian government at the most senior levels. It added that Indian officials responded with “surprise and concern”.
“The defendant conspired from India to assassinate, right here in New York City, a US citizen of Indian origin who has publicly advocated for the establishment of a sovereign state for Sikhs,” US Attorney Damian Williams said.
“We will not tolerate efforts to assassinate US citizens on US soil,” he added.
Sikhs are a religious minority that makes up about 2% of India’s population. Some groups have long called for a separate homeland for Sikhs.
The Indian government has often reacted sharply to demands by Sikh separatists in Western countries for Khalistan, or a separate homeland.
The US indictment at the District Court Southern New York says Nikki Gupta is also known as Nick.
It said: “Earlier this year, an identified Indian got employee (CC-1) working together with others in India and elsewhere, including Nikhil Gupta, directed a plot to assassinate on US soil an attorney and political activist (Gurpatwant Singh Pannun) who is a US Citizen of Indian origin residing in New York City.”
“The victim is a vocal critic of the Indian government and leads a US based organization (Sikhs For Justice) that advocates for the secession of Punjab, a state in India that is home to a large population of Sikhs, an ethnoreligious minority group in India. The victim has publicly called for some or all of Punjab to secede from India and establish a Sikh sovereign state called Khalistan, and the Indian government has banned the victim and his separatist organization from India. US law enforcement detected and disrupted the plot to murder the victim.” (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
