Indian national Nikhil Gupta pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to kill pro-Khalistan activist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York confirmed.
Nikhil Gupta, 54, appeared in federal court in Manhattan and admitted paying $15,000 to what he believed to be a hitman to kill Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, an attorney and political activist based in New York City, in mid-2023. (Receive video from X)Gupta, 54, appeared in federal court in Manhattan and admitted to paying $15,000 to someone he believed to be a hitman to kill Pannun, an activist who led the New York City-based banned group Sikhs for Justice, in mid-2023. He initially did not admit to the charges.
US law enforcement authorities alleged that Gupta was recruited by an Indian government employee to carry out the murder-for-hire plot. India says such a move is against government policy.
“Nikhil Gupta conspired to kill an American citizen in New York City,” said US Attorney Jay Clayton. “He thought he could kill someone from outside this country without consequence, just to exercise their American right to free speech.” But he was wrong and he will face justice.”
He pleaded guilty to three charges – murder-for-hire, conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire and conspiracy to launder money – which carry a combined maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Gupta will be sentenced on May 29 by US District Judge Victor Marrero.
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Gupta has been held without bail in Brooklyn since his extradition from the Czech Republic in June 2024.
According to the US indictment, a man designated “CC-1” — described as a “senior field officer” with “security management” and “intelligence” responsibilities — contacted Gupta in May 2023 and hired him to kill him.
The US government later identified CC-1 as Vikas Yadav, who had previously served in the Central Reserve Police Force and was working in India’s Cabinet Secretariat, which housed the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), at the time of the conspiracy when the US indicted him.
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Yadav was formally indicted by the US Department of Justice in October 2024. He remains absconding in India but has been charged by the Delhi Police in an unrelated extortion case.
After Yadav was formally indicted in October 2024, MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said: “The US State Department has informed us that the Justice Department indictee is no longer employed in India. I confirm that he is no longer an employee of the Government of India.”
Prosecutors said Yadav hired Gupta, who described himself as an international drug and arms trafficker in contact with Yadav, to kill an “outspoken critic of the Indian government” who “led a US-based organization advocating Punjab’s secession”. The intended target was later identified by media reports as Pannun, a dual US-Canadian citizen who heads the Indian-banned group Sikhs for Justice.
Citing intercepted communications between Gupta and Yadav, authorities alleged that Gupta contacted a man he believed to be a criminal associate to find a hitman. The associate was actually a confidential source for US authorities, who directed Gupta to an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a contract killer. Gupta, at Yadav’s behest, agreed to pay $100,000 for the murder and handed over $15,000 as an advance in June 2023, prosecutors said.
US authorities have also linked the Pannun conspiracy to the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijja, a pro-Khalistan separatist designated a terrorist by India, who was shot dead by gunmen outside a Sikh temple in British Columbia, Canada. Hours after the murder, Yadav allegedly sent Gupta a video of Nizar’s body, according to the complaint.
“On or about June 19, 2023, the day after his own murder, Gupta told UC that Nizza also ‘was a target’ and ‘we have many targets.’ Gupta added that, in light of Nijja’s killing, there was ‘no need to wait now’ to kill the victim. On June 20, 2023, Yadav sent Gupta a news article about the hunt, messaging Gupta, ‘[i]of t [a] priority now’,” according to the US Department of Justice.
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In response to the allegations, the Government of India stated that They took US “inputs” seriously and set up a high-level inquiry committee in November 2023 to look into the matter.
“After a lengthy investigation, the committee has submitted its report to the government and recommended legal action against a person, whose previous criminal links and antecedents also came to light during the investigation,” the home ministry said in January 2025.
